TAMA BLAST CALLS BY FUM ON TOBACCO

Tobacco Association Malawi (TAMA)  chief executive officer Graham Kunimba has quashed the call by Famers Union of Malawi(FUM)that Tobacco Companies should be buying the leaf straight from the Field, saying Tobacco is a protected leaf.

“Tobacco is different from all the other crops and buying from the farm is not feasible. This is a cash crop that is very sensitive because it is the back-bone of the Malawi economy.

“What we could advocate as Tama is to have more selling points which are well structured to bring in more transparency,” he said.

He, however, agreed with FUM that in an ideal situation, farmers need to know the price at which their tobacco will be bought before they venture into their gardens to know how much profit or losses they are going to make.

 “I agree with the concerns from farmers on the process of price formulation because they are being told how much a kilogramme (kg) is going to cost after production.

Tobacco selling season started last month where most farmers expressed dissatisfaction over the price offered by the buyers