Tobacco.org

Tobacco production down 67 percent in Kasungu 

Customs help seize fake ciggie seller  

Buyers Fight for Tobacco at Limbe Auction Floors, Market Closed: Farmers In Jubilation 

• Malawi Tobacco Growers Shunning the Crop 

Bad tobacco prices in the consecutive seasons ever since President Bingu wa Mutharika was re-elected in 2009 has left many tobacco growers shunning the crop this season.

Various tobacco farmers interviewed say, they would rather plant beans, paprika or maize due to poor profit margins realized in tobacco farming.

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Tobacco prices spark protests 

TCC worried with tobacco inflows 

• SmokeFree Malawi rings alarm bell on tobacco  

SmokeFree Malawi, an advocacy group against smoking and tobacco related challenges has expressed deepest disappointment over the low tobacco prices at the start of the 2012 tobacco sales "despite the hard work of ordinary Malawians enslaved by the crop in the past four and half decades of independence".

In a media statement r issued on Wednesday and whose copy Nyasa Times has obtained, the advocacy group brings to the attention of President Bingu wa Mutharika, MPs and the Civil Society that smoking and tobacco production in Malawi continues to impact negatively on Malawians livelihood.

"After low prices at the Auction Floors, which has sent thousands of ordinary people into poverty during the 2010/2011 tobacco season, buyers have resorted to stealing from Malawians yet again by offering prices as low as 0.60 cents for a kilogramme of tobacco at the start of the sales in Lilongwe. . . .

"We demand immediate and compulsory provision of nose masks to protect thousands of Malawians that access the tobacco dust and fumes in the industry," says SmokeFree Malawi.

It also expresses "great concern" over "the continuing road shows and single cigarette promotions by cigarette companies in Malawi "in violation of the set International standards that marketing and single stick sales are not encouraged as they can easily be accessed by minors".

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• Smoking Kills: Child Labour on Malawi's Tobacco Farms  

Landlocked and with approximately 80% of its population living in rural areas, Malawi’s economy is largely structured around its agricultural sector. Agriculture accounts for more than one third of the Malawi’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 90% of its export revenues. Tobacco alone comprises over half of Malawi’s exports.

While large-scale cultivation of tobacco has historically been concentrated in the United States, today approximately 75% of the world’s tobacco is harvested in developing countries. Malawi is now one of the world’s five largest producers, and it appeals to cigarette companies “largely due to low tariffs on unmanufactured tobacco imports, cheap labour and lack of regulations.”

But although the tobacco industry brings in a significant amount of foreign capital, the rapid growth of Malawi’s largely unregulated tobacco industry raises questions about the health and wellbeing of the industry’s workers.

Child labour

The transfer of tobacco cultivation to countries such as Malawi has increased the profits enjoyed by cigarette companies. However, a portion of these profits is derived from the use of child labour. According to Professor Stanton Glantz, “replacing child labour with adults paid the minimum wage would increase the production costs by $10 million per year in Malawi alone.”

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Bingu ‘ceasefire’ on Malawi tobacco buyers  

Malawi tobacco market season opens Monday  

Mutharika denies being an alcoholic or smoker 

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has dismissed suggestions that he is an alcoholic or smokes, claiming he is a sober man.

There have been widespread suggestions that most of the decisions the President make are done under the influence of liquor. . . .

“I neither drink beer nor smoke,” said Mutharika at Kamuzu Stadium in remarks aired live on state Malawi Broadcasting Corporation radio and television.

He then appealed to Malawians, p[particularly the youth to desist from binge drinking and smoking habits in order to live longer like him. The President turns 78 on February 24.

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Low tobacco production to worsen Malawi economic crisis  

With Malawi's tobacco marketing season set to open from early next month, the industry's influential body, Tobacco Association of Malawi (Tama) has voiced its concern that failure to grow more tobacco this year would lead to satisfying even half of the demand from leaf buyers.

The body said this would further complicate Malawi's already ailing economy as it means fragile foreign exchange reserves would not be nourished back to healthy levels. . . .

But estimates show that Malawi has this year only managed to grow as 80 million kilograms of the leaf.

This is a huge drop from 237 million kilograms of tobacco harvested last year.

Although farmers are optimistic that there may be better prices this year, Tama president Reuben Maigwa said many farmers had been discouraged from growing the crop because of poor prices and leaf rejections at the auction floors last year.

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• WHO, FCTC disputes burley claims as Malawi gets case study status  

Claims that partial guidelines for the implementation of Articles 9 and 10 have a negative effect on burley tobacco and its producers are inaccurate, the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) has said.

But the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA), which has fought against the adoption of the guidelines, has, on several occasions, argued that the treaty threatens the livelihoods of 30 million tobacco growers globally.

The association estimates that 3.6 million people in just five poor African countries depend on tobacco cultivation.

In Malawi alone, reducing the demand for harsher tasting burley tobacco could shrink the economy by 20 percent, according to ITGA. Two million Malawians directly survive on tobacco growing.

The association said a severe shock to exports for tobacco will lead to the destabilisation of Malawi’s economy which will take decades to recover from such a “one-time shock”.

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Tobacco outlook positive, says TCC but growers not hopeful  

The Tobacco Control Commission is positive about the quality of tobacco in the fields although the total tobacco output for the country is 2012 is expected to go down.

TCC Chief Executive Officer Bruce Munthali said this when he visited some farmers in Kasungu.

Munthali, who visited Chimbwazi Estate in T/A Chulu and a farmer at Chikwere, said enumerators were currently carrying out the first assessment of the yield whose results would be ready first week of February.

He said however that the general picture for the year looks promising.

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Musicians fundraise for tobacco farmers 

It was a mixture of fun, dance and laughter when the Black Missionaries popularly known as Ma Blacks recently held a fundraising show for tobacco farmers in Lilongwe.

Other artists who performed included Anthony 'Mr Cool' Makondetsa, Skeffa Chimoto, urban musician Yanjanani Chumbu and the 'Akamwile" stars Fikisa.

The two shows held at Mungo Park and Summit Culture Centre were organized by Phindu Tobacco Growers Association (PTGA) and proceeds will assist tobacco farmers under the association.

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