• March 18, 2024

Auctions blocked as Malawi rejections hit 60 percent

A ‘fracas’ occurred at the auction floors at Lilongwe, Malawi, on Tuesday, apparently over the prices being offered for growers’ tobacco.

A Malawi24 report said the auctions had been blocked by growers concerned about the rejection rate, which reportedly reached 60 percent.

Usually, a ‘rejection’ occurs when a grower refuses to accept the final price bid for his tobacco.

The CEO of Malawi’s Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), Bruce Munthali, said that growers and the commission were in talks over the matter.

Munthali was said to have argued that a high rejection rate was not something new, but to have added that tolerable rejection rates ranged up to 20 percent.

The TCC expects that the entire crop will be sold by the end of the marketing season in mid-August.