The Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) says it plans to carry out an assessment of the demand and supply side requirements of tobacco marketing in the country as one way of addressing high rejection rates being experienced at the auction floors.
Recent statistics from Auction Holdings Limited (AHL) show that all the tobacco markets experienced rejection rates of above 60 percent this year.
AHL Communications Manager, Mark Ndipita, confirmed that Lilongwe Auction Floors registered a rejection rate of 78, Mzuzu 93 percent while Limbe had 86.1 percent and Chinkhoma 69.5 percent.
‘This is the reason why some growers disrupted sales,” he said.
Chief Executive Officer at the Tobacco Control Commission, Albert Changaya, said his office will send out seven teams for the fact finding mission.
“The teams will comprise of three to four people, and they will go into the growing areas to assess how much was produced, how much was sold, how much is in transit and also how much is left with the growers,” he said
He said the mission will help the country to understand the market dynamics and also help determine if there is need to find new markets.
‘We want to ensure that there is consistency in the number of volumes that the buyers pledged to buy and the actual volumes sold. If the buyer pledged to buy 73 percent of tobacco on contract basis and the remaining 27 percent on auction they have to abide to that. But if it is vice versa then we have a problem,” he said.
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