Leaf sales in Malawi, the country’s top foreign-exchange earner, are 40 per cent below last year levels, the Nyasa Times reported in a story citing the country’s Tobacco Control Commission.

Tobacco revenue as of October amounted to USD 242 million (EUR 177 million), a decrease of 40 per cent from the comparable period last year, the newspaper said. Efforts to diversify into cotton as an alternative to dependence on tobacco have met with political opposition, according to Nyasa Times. (pi)