Tobacco Asia

52 tobaccoasia / Issue 1, 2017 March / April By Thomas Schmid Malawi: Premium Burley to the World Geographically relatively obscure, the African country of Malawi nevertheless has a global repu- tation for producing the finest burley leaf outside the US. TOBACCO ASIA talks to some of the main players. Burley tobacco field Burley seedlings ready for re-planting Hugging the western shore of Lake Malawi, the small southeast African nation of Malawi is today known as the largest supplier of quality burley leaf in the world. Tobacco cultivation in the landlocked country then known as Nyasaland began as early as 1893 when the British colonial administration started producing flue-cured Virginia (FCV). In the following decades the burgeoning tobacco in- dustry was subsequently expanded to also include dark fire-cured (DFC) and, finally, burley. While Malawi presently still produces smaller amounts of excellent Virginia tobacco, burley has become the main crop. Overall, tobacco is of tre- mendous economic importance for the small na- tion, currently making up roughly 55% of total exports and earning the country 60% of its for- eign revenues. In global terms, Malawian tobacco accounts for an astonishing 6.6% of all tobacco exports worldwide, ranking the country as the sev- enth largest supplier of tobacco leaf. While vast tobacco estates located on the cen- tral plateaus predominantly produce FCV, burley cultivation is the almost exclusive domain of tens of thousands of smallholder farms and so-called "clubs" scattered around the country, the latter being administrative units averaging four grower members each, who own their individual land plots but may help each other out in their fields and share equipment. It is estimated that up to 10% of Malawi's population of about 16 million is either directly or indirectly involved in the tobacco industry, from farming to final processing and shipping. While much of Malawi's crop is purchased by big multi- national corporations like Alliance One and Uni- versal Tobacco, a slew of other tobacco merchant companies are also active in the country. Premium Tama Tobacco Malawi A member of the Premium Tobacco Group, Premium Tama Tobacco Limited (PTTL) was established in 2007 and is headquartered in the capital city of Lilongwe. In 2016, PTTL purchased roughly 15% of Malawi's total burley crop, as well as 3.2% of FCV and 33% of DFC (see table 1), its main competitors being Alliance One and Limbe Leaf, the local associate company of Universal To- bacco. According to leaf and sales manager Mi- chael Maloney, PTTL ships its merchandise to all corners of the world, where it is used in practically Courtesy of Premium Tama Tobacco Malawi Ltd. Courtesy of Premium Tama Tobacco Malawi Ltd.

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