Smuggling The Green Gold

News from Malawi: Police Arrest Tobacco Farmers

Malawi police have arrested 170 tobacco farmers from Mchinji District for allegedly attempting to smuggle tobacco to neighbouring Zambia. Mchinji Police Station Officer in Charge Assistant Commissioner James Munthali confirmed the arrest saying the farmers wanted to smuggle the country’s green gold using unchartered routes.

“These tobacco growers were arrested at Kapiri Trading Center and right now they are in custody at Mchinji Police waiting to appear before the court on Thursday,” said Munthali.

The police boss said the 170 tobacco growers attempted to illegally cross the boarder with 424 bales of tobacco on Wednesday morning.

According to Assistant Commissioner Munthali, the law enforcers have also seized the 14 tracks which were transporting the bales to Lundazi.

Meanwhile, Munthali said police have intensified patrols in the district in order to stop farmers from illegally taking their tobacco to Zambia.

Most farmers have requested government to open the boarders so that they sell their tobacco in neighbouring countries where prices are reportedly far much higher than the local ones.

A month has now passed since the tobacco markets opened in Lilongwe, Chinkhoma (Kasungu) and Limbe but there is still no hope in sight for improved prices for the country’s major forex earner. There has also been high rejection rate of bales.

Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) has described the season as the worst in recent years.

According to some farmers interviewed by Nyasa Times, in Mozambique buyers are offering a minimum of 2dollars (K300) per kg while at the local auction floors the leaf fetches as low as 53 cents (K76) per kg.

The development comes barely a week after tobacco growers in Malawi asked President Bingu wa Mutharika to open the borders for them so that they can explore better tobacco markets in Mozambique and Zambia.

Many tobacco farmers in Malawi’s boarder districts such as Mchinji, Kasungu and Mzimba usually sell their tobacco illegally in Zambia where the leaf fetches almost double the local prices.

Since the 2011 tobacco market opened some four weeks ago, growers have been increasing complaining about the low prices buyers are offering. On the other hand, buyers say they are offering low prices because the quality of tobacco is very low.

This year’s minimum prices were set at USD2.83 (K430.16) per kg for flue cured while burley was put at $1.80 (K237.60) per kg, which are relatively lower than those set during the last growing season.

Through tobacco exports, Malawi gets about 60 percent of its annual foreign exchange. Malawi is one of the world’s major tobacco growing countries and is the highest grower of burley tobacco.

source: tobaccoreviews.net