Tobacco growers plan to take government and the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) to court over a decision to implement contract farming in the 2012/13 season.
If implemented, the contract farming arrangement could see the auction floors only handling 20 percent of the total leaf produced.
The High Court has since granted an injunction stopping the introduction and implementation of what is being referred to as the Integrated Production System (IPS) pending determination on the matter.
According to documents from the High Court in Blantyre, six growers’ associations with a combined membership of about 16 000 farmers have challenged the new system as illegal and not in line with the country’s laws.
The court documents under Judicial Cause Number 29 of 2012 signed by the Deputy Registrar of the High Court ordered that any disobedience to the order will amount to contempt of court.
Implementation of the IPS will see 80 percent of the total tobacco volume sold under contract farming, whereby all buyers will be having individual contracts with tobacco growers without going through the auction floors where tobacco is sold through bidding by different buyers.
