Due to low production, Malawi's tobacco sales are expected to close two months earlier than planned.

Reports indicate that about 40,000 farmers abandoned the crop last growing season due to poor prices at the auction floors in the previous years, resulting in a considerable drop in tobacco production.
Normally, tobacco sales in the country wrap up in October or early November when tobacco production is high. However, this year the auction might close as early as July.
The Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) said it expects that by the end of July, tobacco auctioning at the country's three tobacco auction floors will be wrapping up for business as the tobacco supply at the markets will have dried up.
Tobacco contributes about 60 percent of the country's total foreign exchange earnings. This year’s prices for the leaf were much better than in the previous two years.