The final tobacco production is estimated to decline by 26.7 percent from 155 million kilogrammes to 113.3 million kilogrammes, reports Malawi News.

Estimates for Burley have dropped by 26.6 per cent from 128.2 to 94.1 million kgs, Flue Cured by 25.8 percent from 22.4 to 16.6 million kgs while Dark Cured has dropped by 36.7 percent from 4 million kg to 2.5 million kgs. The decline is attributed to weather related shocks especially excessive rains that came immediately after the second-round crop assessment, the report said.
Tobacco Commission (TC) Chief Executive Officer, Kaisi Sadala, said in an interview that announcement of earlier closure of the tobacco market this season was necessitated by the drop in output. “This means that as a country and economy, we will not be able to realise what we projected and buyers too will not be able to buy what they intended to buy,” Sadala was quoted as saying.