Upon the closing day for registration of tobacco farmers in September, the Tobacco Commission (TC) noted that the registered farmers were 15% lesser than the recently closed season.
While registration was aimed to close on 30th September this year, the commission pushed the registration deadline to October14, 2020 in an attempt to woo more growers to register.
This year’s tobacco selling season closed with total sales amounting to $173.5 million (about K130 billion) which is 23% lower than the sales registered during last year’s market season. According to figures by Auction Holdings Limited (AHL), the market this year sold 112.89 million kgs of tobacco as opposed to 165.67 million kgs sold last year, which was also what the company predicted last month. While the covid-19 pandemic stands as a contributing factor to the lowered sales, there was also a high rejection rate reaching up to 50% this year.
