Better tobacco prices realised during the last selling season are enticing more growers into expressing interest in growing the green gold this year, Times Business has established.
As of Wednesday, tobacco growers had expressed interest to grow over 150 million kilogrammes (kg) of the green gold as compared to 129 million kg during the same time last year.
Tobacco Commission spokesperson Telephorous Chigwenembe confirmed the surge in an interview, Wednesday, saying the commission expects higher production this year as compared to last season.
Last year, international buyers had pegged their demand for Malawi tobacco at 170 million kg but the country managed to produce 120 million kg only.
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According to Chigwenembe, this year’s registration and licencing of growers for the next growing season is expected to close on September 30.
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“We attribute the increase in this year’s licenced volumes to good tobacco prices last marketing season.
“We are sure farmers are motivated to grow more, which aligns very well with our goal of producing up to 200 million kg annually by 2028,” Chigwenembe said.
During the 2023 tobacco selling season, Malawi realised a total of $282.618 million up from $182 million last year.
This year, the leaf fetched an average price of $2.35 per kg which was much better than the $2.14 per kg the green gold attracted last year.
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Speaking at the start of the tobacco selling season, TC Chairperson Godfrey Chapola said the commission has an ambitious plan of increasing tobacco production to 200 million kg in the next five years.
And speaking when he opened the season, President Lazarus Chakwera said tobacco farmers are the number one forex generators in the country, adding that if all the tobacco farmers stopped producing tobacco today, the economy would collapse.
“Tobacco farmers are the ones making it possible for the rest of us to wear imported clothes, buy imported fuel, take imported medicines, travel abroad, watch foreign channels on our television sets, ride in imported cars, and so forth.
“So as far as I am concerned, we must do everything we can to support tobacco farming to increase its productivity because whether anyone likes it or not, tobacco farmers are the ones keeping our economy on its feet and giving us access to all the goods and services we enjoy from other countries,” Chakwera said.
