This archive report was first published on 22 June 2020.
Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries and a top 10 tobacco producer, is facing a crisis in its tobacco industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For 56-year-old Boniface Namate, a Malawian tobacco farmer, the pandemic has ruined his dreams of buying a new car and building a new house.
Namate had banked on a bumper crop this year, but the coronavirus pandemic has seen his earnings evaporate.
"The prices that came from the auction are not what we expected. We are devastated", said Namate.
Due to restrictions imposed to control the spread of the virus, growers were barred from physically attending the auctions where prices are set, leaving farmers feeling cheated by buyers.
"We are not operating normally as there is no interaction between the buyer and the grower," said Betty Chinyamunyamu of the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi.
"Because of this, there are trust issues," she added.
Malawi's tobacco industry is a significant contributor to the country's economy, accounting for over 50% of foreign exchange earnings and 23% of tax revenues.
However, the pandemic has turned up the heat on farmers, with the United States restricting tobacco imports from Malawi last November over allegations of worker exploitation and child labour.
According to Namate, he had been expecting his first bales of 1,116 kilogrammes to fetch up to USD1,500, but instead received a meagre USD540.
"I was devastated because I had planned a lot of things with the money," said Namate, who is even contemplating abandoning the crop altogether.
Another farmer, Alick Munthali, who has harvested eight tonnes of tobacco in Rumphi in northern Malawi, finds himself in a similar predicament.
"We don't know how much the tobacco is fetching and we have no opportunity to negotiate the price with the buyer," said Munthali, who has been farming the crop since 1989.
Malawi's main opposition leader Lazarus Chakwera believes farmers have been unfairly treated.
"The farmers basically have been abused," he told AFP.
