The 2019 tobacco selling season officially closed last Friday, following the closure of Lilongwe and Mzuzu Auction floors.

Summing up this year’s market, Auction Holdings Limited (AHL) Group Public Relations Manager, Tereza Ndanga, described this year’s tobacco selling season as a mixed bag, attributing her view to AHL Tobacco Sales establishment of receiving centres in rural areas, where farmers were able to deliver their bales, while on the other hand, prices were generally low, though there was a slight pickup towards the end of the season.

This year’s tobacco market so a lowered demand by buyers, as well as a new tobacco Act that has stiff penalties on overproduction. The Act reads, “where a grower willfully produces excess tobacco in contravention of his production quota or the contractual agreement with his buyer, as the case may be, the [Tobacco] Commission shall uplift the grower’s production quota and collect three quarters of the proceeds of the excess tobacco and remit the remaining one quarter to the grower”.

However, Minister of Agriculture Kondwani Nankhumwa announced the suspension of the 75% penalty on tobacco sold outside individual quotas this year. The minister, who was addressing hundreds of tobacco farmers gathered at the Tobacco Commission head office in Lilongwe, eased tension as the farmers were anxious towards the new tobacco Act.