Malawi tobacco rotting on auction floor

Central America News.Net
Friday 16th May, 2008

Wildly fluctuating prices have closed Malawi's tobacco commodity auction floors.

The tobacco industry has been in turmoil since prices reached the phenomenal price of 11 dollars per kg and then dropped.

The value of the leaf has gone down to between 2.30 dollars and 60 cents for the same quality crop.

In March a kilogram of tobacco was fetching between six and eleven dollars.

This gave hope to farmers who have struggled to make any profit from the trade over the last few years.

It costs the average tobacco farmer one dollar to produce one kilogram of the crop, but for many years, prices moved between 70 and 90 cents per kilogram.

The auction floors were closed on April 14th after violence broke out between the farmers and the guards at the market.

The farmers physically blocked the buyers from continuing with sales, which were then suspended.

Malawi is a major exporter of tobacco, accounting for five percent of the world's total exports and two percent of total production throughout the world.

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