The Tobacco Commission sold Tobacco Burley at the Lilongwe Auction Floors for $3.59 per kilogram on Thursday, the highest price since the beginning of the 2024 selling season.
Public Relations Officer for TC, Theophilus Chigwenembe, said buyers continue to offer good prices even though the selling season will end soon.
He added that the tobacco industry has just completed the third round of crop estimate surveys to determine the amount of tobacco that is yet to be taken to the floors.
“Market performance has been impressive since the opening of the season because we have seen tobacco of good quality offered at good prices apart from that trading has been smooth, without disruptions during this period. We are confident this will be the case up to the end of the selling season,” he explained.
Next week, the industry’s sales committee will meet to appoint dates for the closure of the 2024 selling season, which has been running for 11 weeks.
Malawi is one of the worldʼs most tobacco-reliant countries, with tobacco histories accounting for up to 70% of foreign exchange earnings and heavily relies on tobacco production and sales to support its economy.
The country grows three types of tobacco namely Flue Cured Virginia, Burley and Fired Cured tobaccos. Burley tobacco is a high-quality tobacco that has a high nicotine content and is considered to have superior flavour to many other types of tobacco. It is 6.6 per cent of the world’s tobacco exports and accounts for over 50% per cent of Malawi’s foreign earnings.
Malawian tobacco is found in blends of nearly every cigarette smoked in industrialized nations including the popular and ubiquitous Camel and Marlboro brands.
