Blantyre — ZIMBABWEAN commercial farmers, faced with low tobacco output in their country, are reported to be buying Malawi burley tobacco at higher prices at the borders.
Some growers at Limbe Auction Floors yesterday complained the Zimbabwean buyers were offering higher prices-US$1.80/kg (K130/kg)-free from deductable levies and taxes.
The revelation comes hot on the heels of a National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (Nasfam) warning that government will lose millions in taxes, levies and fees if it does not check the cross-border trade in tobacco.
"My friends have moved their tobacco into Mozambique where white farmers from Zimbabwe are buying it at very good prices," Kelly Mankhusu, a commercial farmer at Mayaka in Zomba, said yesterday.
He said selling the leaf across the border was lucrative because no levies and taxes were deducted from the payments made, unlike at the auction floors where almost 35 percent of the total sales go to levies, taxes and fees.
Another grower from Namwera in Mangochi, Marko Maulana, said soon after government authorised direct exports of tobacco, merchants from Mozambique were buying tobacco right at the farms and selling it to Zimbabwean farmers in Mozambique.
"Farmers started selling their tobacco long way back before the auction floors opened. That is the surest way to get their retains," he said.
He said it was not clear whether the tobacco comes back into the country later for processing or it is exported elsewhere by the Zimbabweans for processing.
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But Godfrey Chapola, general manager of Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), said yesterday the commission has not received any reports of Zimbabwean commercial farmers buying Malawi tobacco across the borders.
"All I know is that cross-border tobacco exports are going on but I don't know if it is the Zimbabweans buying because I have not been there," he said.
Albert Kamulaga, president of Tobacco Association of Malawi (Tama)-representative body of tobacco growers in the country-dismissed the claims as untrue.
"Its not true. Zimbabwe grows flue-cured tobacco and there is no way the farmers there could come and get burley from Malawian farmers," he said.
Kamulaga, who last week branded as "illogical" government's decision to restrict sales of tobacco after liberalising production, said Zimbabweans have little interest in the burley leaf because their major export leaf type is flue-cured.
Nasfam warned in a statement last week that government is losing millions in tax revenue and levies as cross-border tobacco trade continued to grow.
"There is no argument that buyers across the borders (just across) may be providing attractive prices in Malawi kwacha. The real complaint should be why the buyers on our auction floors are providing less attractive pricess," Nasfam said.
Official figures from TCC indicate that last year 6 million kilogrammes of tobacco were lost to Mozambique and Zambia in crossborder deals. Government's decision to liberalise tobacco exports is likely raise the figures this year.
