The Malawi Tobacco Commission (TC) is anticipating an exciting season in terms of volumes and prices over 248 million kilograms of all tobacco varieties licensed, repots Malawi24.
The TC started registering tobacco growers and licensing their tobacco last year before the start of the growing season. To ensure that growers who missed the December registration and licensing deadline receive a license, the registration and licensing deadline has been extended to 31 January. The Commission is also conducting a crop estimates survey.
TC’s public relations officer, Theophilus Chigwenembe, said the commission did not register any major issues during the first round of crop estimation for the 2023/2024 farming season which started on the 15th of January.
In an interview Chigwenembe said that the commission had organized a training workshop for all enumerators in the exercise to ensure consistency in survey activities in all regions. He added that every year the commission holds an industry conference to reflect on its work and agree on what should be done to improve on things where gaps have been identified as it strives for organized information for the industry to achieve certain things.
According to Chigwenembe, there will be no penalties during this extension and growers will be able to pay for their registration and licensing after selling their tobacco this year.