The Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) says the crop’s first round assessment report, which was supposed to be released at the end of last week, will instead be issued “within the next two weeks” as the technical team is still assessing the situation.
TCC chief executive officer, Albert Changaya said in an interview on Monday that the technical team faced “minor technical glitches” and is therefore still reviewing the crop in some parts of the central and northern regions before consolidating the figures.
“We were hoping to release the figures by end of last week, but outcome of a meeting we held last week in Zomba indicate that we have to wait a while as we are currently still consolidating the figures,” said Changaya.
He said the commission has to re-evaluate the figures as there have been some changes in production patterns in some parts of the central region.
According to Changaya, considering the fact that some parts were hit by drought at the beginning of the season, there was need to closely monitor the leaf as it is currently picking up following the change in the rainfall pattern now.
He said after the initial estimates are released, another review would be conducted to give a complete picture of production for this year.
And commenting on the outlook, Changaya said despite the drought that hit some parts of the country, there is still hope of an increase in production levels.
He said the crop which was heavily affected by the drought was that of the southern region.
“We were still thinking that although quality and quantity may be affected especially in the southern region, it looks like the crop is picking up now,” said Changaya.
Last growing season, Malawi produced 192.7 million kilogrammes of all tobacco types.
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