Low turnout, network affect TCC registration

Low turnout of growers and network problems being experienced at the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) offices nationwide have affected this year’s registration and licensing exercise currently underway.

TCC registers all the players in the tobacco industry such as growers associations, commercial graders, tobacco buyers and the tobacco growers and they are licensed according to what they do.

But data collected from TCC shows that since the registration exercise commenced in August, 13 877 tobacco clubs and 4 059 estates had registered as at 30 September 2015.

However, during a similar period last year, the commission had managed to register 29 449 clubs and 10 378 estates.

According to information sourced from TCCs website, the registration exercise last year started in September and ended in January 2015 while this year’s exercise is expected to close on 30 November.

In an interview on Tuesday, TCC technical and operations manager, Fred Kamvazina, said the development was caused by network problems that commission has been experiencing since September.

“We have been facing a nationwide network challenges since September and this has resulted in us registering few farmers per day.

“Our offices, especially in Mzuzu and Limbe, have been hard hit by the development but we are taking some measures towards addressing this connectivity issue,” he said.

But Auction Holdings Limited (AHL) has said the decline in the number of growers being registered should not be cause for alarm.

AHL group corporate affairs manager, Mark Ndipita, said there could be a host of factors for the decline in the registration turnout.

“There may be a lot of possible explanations as to why growers maybe registering at such a pace, one of which could be that farmers are busy with finalising last season’s business as you are aware the tobacco markets closed not long ago,” he said.

“It is too early now for us to start speculating on the implications of this development as we may end up misleading people,” he said.

Meanwhile, TCC says it will be strict on quotas this year, which it said would not be adjusted without special approval.

“TCC will be strict with the current crop size management requirements and tobacco demands from their merchants this season. We will not be uplifting quotas without special approval from the merchants themselves. We want to avoid last season’s scenario where we ended up having more tobacco on the market than what was demanded, which in a way affected pricing,” said Kamvazina.

Malawi has earned $337.3 million (189 billion) from tobacco this year—an eight percent drop from last year’s $366.3 million (K205 billion) despite volumes of 192 600 metric tonnes being 7.9 percent higher than last year’s 189 800 metric tonnes, according to figures from AHL. The drop has been blamed on poor prices.

Last week, Tobacco Association of Malawi vice president Albert Jere described this year’s sales season as tough for farmers due to poor prices. n