The Malawian Parliament has passed the Tobacco Industry Bill which seeks to repeal the Tobacco Industry Act No. 10 of 2019, reports Nyasa Times.
The act has been replaced by a new and comprehensive legal framework for the regulation of the tobacco industry in Malawi. Minister of Agriculture Sam Kawale told Parliament on 29 December that the new law is meeting the criteria of tobacco industry around the world. “The old law was not adequately dealing with issues of child Labour, tenancy and how different stakeholders were supposed to operate,” he was quoted as saying. Kawale continued by saying that the new bill protected growers as it gave the possibility of carnivorous activities by big companies that includes growing and transportation of tobacco. He added that the bill has included clauses on how they can trace Malawi tobacco from the grower, chemical and labour used so that the leaf can be marketable anywhere else. The new legislation regulates, among others, contract and non-contract farming, tobacco production and delivery quota, sale of tobacco and its prices, processing, import and export of tobacco, disposal of tobacco plants and stalks, research and extension in tobacco; and sale and consumption of tobacco and nicotine products, the report said.