Tobacco market opens in Lilongwe

The Lilongwe Tobacco market has opened this morning with a secret price bidding exercise being implemented for the first time for tobacco buyers.

Contrary to previous norm for buyers to compete openly for outright price offers for bales, each buyer is offering own price per bale which will be compared with fellow buyers at the end of the sales. This means that the highest bidder will take the volume after comparing with what others offered for particular bales.

The Tobacco Commission Chief executive officer Kayisi Sadala said the secret tobacco price bidding being implemented for the first time aims to do away with the price influence amongst buying companies. He said apart from ensuring that buyers offer better prices to farmers, the secret price bidding will also help to minimise the rejection rate as no buyer will know whether a particular bale of tobacco has been rejected or not.

The market has opened under strict Covid-19 measures. All stakeholders entering the market are observing social distancing, sanitising hands and wearing face masks as compulsory measures.

About 3 000 bales will be put up for sale on a daily basis which is lower than previous years when about 10 000 bales would be put up for sale per day.