By Stella Chasowa
The Tobacco Commission has warned that it will deal with nesting in this year’s tobacco selling season as a way of preserving the integrity of Malawi tobacco.
According to Tobacco Commission spokesperson Telephorus Chigwenembe, in this year’s selling season, all nested tobacco bales will be forfeited to the Commission, and the owners of the bales will, therefore, not get any share of proceeds.
Chigwenembe further said that in the Tobacco Industry Act of 2024, nesting is the concealment of stems, scraps, loose leaf, or any object within a tobacco bale to deceive a buyer on quality or quantity; therefore, he has asked farmers to avoid the malpractice.
In 2024, more than 3,400 bales were confiscated for nesting, and the Commission imposed a penalty of 50% of proceeds from the sale of re-handled nested bales.