* The average price also fell to US$1.98 per kilogramme from US$2.54 per kilogramme during the comparable period last year
* 142.4 million kilogrammes of tobacco had been sold, down from 197.2 million kilogrammes sold at the same stage of the 2025 marketing season
By Khumbo Msambala Salanje & Roy Howa, Malawi News Agency (MANA)
Malawi’s tobacco industry has earned US$282.5 million after 19 weeks of trading in the 2026 marketing season, which is US$217.9 million below the US$500.4 million realised during the same period last year.
Advertisement
Latest figures from the Tobacco Commission show that 142.4 million kilogrammes of tobacco had been sold, down from 197.2 million kilogrammes sold at the same stage of the 2025 marketing season.
The average price also fell to US$1.98 per kilogramme from US$2.54 per kilogramme during the comparable period last year.
The figures show that tobacco sales volume has declined by about 28%, while foreign exchange earnings have fallen by about 44% due to the combined effect of lower volumes and prices.
Tobacco Commission public relations officer, Telephorus Chigwenembe said a comprehensive assessment of the 2026 marketing season would be conducted after trading closes on September 10 to establish the pricing dynamics and other factors that affected the market.
Chigwenembe said the Commission’s third crop estimate projected production at 154 million kilogrammes, although the figure remained an estimate and actual production could be slightly higher or lower.
Based on the estimate and the 142.4 million kilogrammes sold so far, about 11.6 million kilogrammes could remain to be sold before the market closes, subject to the final actual crop produced.
The Commission’s latest market update shows that contract farming continued to dominate tobacco sales, accounting for more than 93% of the total volume sold during the period.
However, auction tobacco faced significantly higher rejection rates, with 50.95% of all bales offered reportedly rejected, compared with an overall market rejection rate of 9.32%.
TAMA Farmers Trust president, Abiel Kalima Banda attributed some of the difficulties during the 2026 season to market conditions that emerged towards the end of the previous season.
Kalima Banda said the 2025 marketing season started strongly, but buyers reduced uptake around August, resulting in increased rejection rates and falling prices that continued into the 2026 season.
He added that tobacco produced outside sponsorship arrangements was particularly affected, with non sponsored tobacco facing higher rejection rates and lower prices.
Kalima Banda further indicated that the dominance of sponsored or contract tobacco had left some independent growers struggling to secure favourable prices for their crop.
He warned that weak returns were coming at a time when the cost of tobacco production continued to rise: “Input prices keep rising against static prices such that farmers are finding it difficult to finance the next crop of 2027.”
All four tobacco markets in the country will close on September 10, 2026, marking the end of this year’s tobacco marketing season following an assessment of deliveries which showed that most of this year’s crop has already been sold.
Chigwenembe said growers who still have unsold tobacco should deliver it to the markets by September 8 and also urged buyers, transporters and other industry players to begin winding up their tobacco marketing activities ahead of the closure.
The 2026 tobacco marketing season opened on April 20 and will have run for 21 weeks when the markets close.—Editing by Maravi Express
Advertisement