The Ministry of Agriculture has advised tobacco farmers to take proper care of their leaf during reaping and grading to maintain quality and attract good prices during auctioning.
Director of Crops Development in the Ministry of Agriculture, Elida Kazira made remarks today in Lilongwe during the opening of 2024 Tobacco Industry conference.
Kazira said as the country expects to have more tobacco production due to last year’s good prices, there is need for farmers to follow all laws in the tobacco industry.
“We are encouraging farmers that when they are contemplating of growing the crop, they should also look at the quality of the leaf and also making sure that they are following all the laws that are required in the tobacco industry without compromising anything so that we still have buyers out there” said Kazira.
Kazira further assured farmers that there is high demand of Malawian leaf on the international market.
To his part, chairperson for Tobacco Processing Association Moffat Hamilton Gama concurred with Kazira on the need of offering the global market quality product.
Despite a very big demand of tobacco on market, Gama advised that the tobacco production should be optimal this season.
“We don’t want to over produce, we don’t want to under produce and also I think we need to focus on ensuring that we offer the global market a quality product”.
The two-day conference has drawn participants from Tobacco Commission, Tobacco buying companies, growers Associations, Researchers, Transporters and is being held under the theme “Learning from our successes and challenges to improve the future”.
Organizers, The Tobacco Commission through its Chairperson Dr. Godfrey Chapola said the expectations from the conference is to discuss challenges that have been encountered over the past year in the Tobacco Industry.
“People will deliberating on different issues that have been posing challenges and also they will be deliberating on what we have done well as success stories and the way forward”.
Reports shows that since registration started, 53,000 growers have already registered, camparing to last year’s 40,000 due to good prices.
