The Tobacco Commission (TC) suspended Monday’s tobacco sales at Lilongwe Auction Floors due to small volumes of Tobacco. TC announced last week that the m
President Lazarus Chakwera will today continue with crop inspection tours in Mangochi district. The President has had similar tasks in Thyolo and Zomba distr
Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) Executive Director, John Kapito has suggested that perhaps the cooking oil manufacturers should engage farmers to grow more of the raw materials their industry need such as soya, groundnuts, sunflower and others.
Kapito made the suggestion when CAMA in collaboration with Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) asked the manufacturers not continue attributing that the current price increase of refined cooking oil is due to the 16.5% value added tax (VAT) which government re-introduced last year.
CAMA Executive Director
Kapito said, according to their findings on the grounds, the current price increase of refined cooking oil is due to many factors, including the increase in globally price of the imported crude oil, which the manufacturers themselves disclosed during the press conference CAMA organised at College of Medicine Sports Complex in Blantyre on Wednesday.
President Lazarus Chakwera says the country needs to transition from a tobacco based economy and has tasked the Ministry of Agriculture to roll out consultations with relevant stakeholders aimed at identifying a viable crop that can substitute tobacco.
Speaking on Tuesday when he officially opened the 2021 Tobacco Marketing Season at Lilongwe Auction Floors, Chakwera said it was high time the country explored other crops like industrial hemp to replace tobacco, the country’s main strategic crop wh
ich rakes in about 60 percent foreign currency earnings.
He said the future for the tobacco industry looks b
leak because of international anti-smoking lobbies which are leading to a decline in tobacco trade.