Tobacco Asia

Tobacco Asia 67 (AN ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 45001:2018 & SA 8000:2014 COMPANY) • MANUFACTURERS OF HIGH QUALITY CIGARETTE FILTER RODS - MONO ACETATE, SLIM, ULTRA SLIM, FLAVOURED, FILTER TIPS FOR RYO SEGMENT. EXPORT ENQUIRIES WELCOMED. • EXCLUSIVE BUSINESS PARTNERS WITH KAYMICH - GLUING & FLAVOURING SYSTEMS, ARKOTE - KNIVES, COESIA COMPANIES (G.D S.P.A./SASIB/ MOLINS/ CERULEAN), MAX SCHLATTERER - ESBAND TAPES, SCHWEITZER MAUDUIT (PDM/LTR), BOEGLI-GRAVURES S.A., BENKERT- TIPPING PAPER, GODREJ - GLYCERINE/CASINGS AND OTHER LEADING COMPANIES. • EXPORTERS OF CIGARETTES AND TOBACCO. EXPORT ENQUIRIES SOLICITED. • PROVIDE MARKETING SERVICES IN INDIA, NEPAL AND UAE FOR THE CIGARETTE/TOBACCO INDUSTRY. from 190 million kg in 2023, there's hardly an end in sight to the crop's popularity among Malawi's tobacco growers. This season's record numbers for tobacco sales are likely to once more revive what seems to be the country's eternal cycle of tobacco reliance. The number of active licensed entities, which are required to cultivate tobacco, is an indicator of this—it has risen from 30,498 in 2022 and 34,548 in 2023 to 50,258 in the 2025 season. "The num- ber of active farmers varies each year depending on interest in tobacco production at the time, which in turn is influenced by selling prices of the year before," Lita explains. "Interest to grow more is being driven by good prices on the mar- ket and poor performance of the alternative cash crops like legumes. Recently, legumes—especially soya—haven't been doing well in terms of pric- ing on the market. Weather has also worsened the situation, especially El Niño, which brought dry spells in the January–February periods of 2024 and 2025, when these crops needed more water, thus leading to crop failure in the field, with to- bacco being relatively resilient. Farmers look for a crop that will provide good profits and has an assured market—factors that have been missing with alternative crops." According to the Tobacco Commission, which regulates the trade, cultivation alone employs almost half a million people. Structural economic weakness Malawi's heavy dependency on a single commod- ity has become a structural weakness in its econ- omy, as it brings major economic vulnerabilities. For more than a decade, global tobacco consump- tion has been falling, especially in high-income countries, which are the country's key buyers. As demand shrinks, so do global prices—earnings per ton have dropped over the years, forcing farmers to grow more to make the same income, which is In 2024, tobacco made up 57.6% of Malawi's total exports—well above the World Bank's historical average of 45%. Credit: Joachim Huber, CC2.0.

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