Rais Bingu Mutharika awatimua wawekezaji wanaowanyonya wakulima; JK unangoja nini?

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Blantyre, Malawi - Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika, has threatened to arrest any "tobacco colonialist" who defies his deportation order.

In a special address to the nation, broadcast on national radio and television, Mutharika said: "I ordered the deportation from our country of four foreign tobacco buyers -- Mr. Kelvin Stainton and Mr. Van de Merwe of Limbe Leaf Tobacco Company, Mr. Collin Armstrong of Alliance One and Mr. Alex Mackay of Premium TAMA.

"These individuals connived to deliberately frustrate the policy of this governm ent to improve the welfare of our people through better prices of tobacco. For a long time they have continued to exploit the poor people of Malawi by offering them much lower prices than those offered in neighbouring countries.

"In doing so, they have been sabotaging the Malawi economy and have been harming the very people who grow tobacco for them to buy," he said.

The Mutharika administration, at the beginning of the tobacco marketing season for 2009, decreed that burley tobacco would not be sold at prices lower than US$ 2.50 per kilogramme while flue cured tobacco would be sold at not less than US$ 3.09 per kilogramme.

"These prices had not been fixed arbitrarily," emphasised Mutharika, adding: "These prices were not fixed arbitrarily but through negotiations taking into account the cost of inputs and other considerations."

But, the president observed, "to the dismay of the small and poor black tobacco growers, these people have chosen to undermine government by continuing to deliberately lowering the prices of tobacco.

"They have also decided to make fun of me as your leader."

Mutharika said the four should leave Malawi by Wednesday "or risk arrest".

"I am now warning all tobacco buyers that any company that deliberately seeks to cheat the people of Malawi and ignore the agreed prices of tobacco and any similar commodity will be dealt with accordingly," he said.

He added: "Anyone sabotaging our economy is an enemy of the people of Malawi and does not deserve to be in this country."

Tobacco is Malawiâ?s most important cash crop, fetching over 75 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earning.

Over 80 per cent of Malawians are directly or indirectly employed by the tobacco industry which contributes up to 30 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and at least 23 per cent of all tax collections.

Last year, tobacco earned Malawi US$ 472 million from a total of 194 million kilogrammes of the leaf.

This year, the countryâ?s overall production of tobacco has been projected at 250 million kilogrammes with revenue projected at over US$ 500 million if buyers a dhered to the fixed minimum prices.

Over 30,000 smallholder farmers are involved in tobacco production after the World Bank asked government to liberalise tobacco growing in the 1980s which was heavily regulated.

The southern African country is the world's largest producer of burley tobacco, a thin-leafed brand that is dried in the open air, after Brazil.

Agricultural experts have observed that a Malawian farmer spends at least US$ 1.20 to produce one kilogramme of tobacco which means that most farmers do not earn any profit from the leaf since most buyers were offering less than a dollar per kilogramme before the Mutharika administration fixed the minimum prices.

Blantyre - 09/09/2009

Pana

Source: http://www.afriquejet.com

 

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Nimeipenda sana hii habari. Wawekezaji wengi sana hapa Africa wanatumia migongo ya viongozi dhaifu kuwaonyanya wananchi kwa kuwaibia rasirimali zao kwa njia mbalimbali. Kwa mfano hapa TZ tunao wawekezaji wa aina hii kwenye sekta nyingi sana kama madini, kilimo, utalii, viwanda etc ambao uwekezaji wao hausaidii wananchi wa kawaida. Tumeyaona yanayotokea huko Loliondo, huko North Mara, huko kwenye masoko ya tumbaku, miwa etc wananchi wananyanyaswa sana lakini viongozi wao wapo kwa ajili ya kutetea maslahi ya wao na wawekezaji tu.

Rais wetu angekuwa na macho ya ndani, utashi wa kweli, dhamira ya kweli na ya kizalendo ya kutaka kuleta maendeleo TZ alitakiwa afanye angalau hili alilo fanya Bingu wa Mutharika hapo jirani Malawi.

Ikumbukwe kuwa hawa waliotimuliwa Malawi ni Ma MD wa makampuni ya tumbuku waliokiuka makubaliano na vyama vya wakulima, na makumpuni hayo pia yanafanya kazi hapa Tanzania i.e Alliance One Tobacco, TLTC na Premium. Na kwa sababu sera za makampuni ya kimataifa (multinationals) hufanana, basi naamini unyonyaji unaofanyika Malawi na hapa Tanzania haukwepeki kwa makampuni yanayofanya kazi hapa.

Wakulima wetu wa tumbaku hapa Tz wamekuwa wakilalamika siku nyingi sana kuwa wananyonywa na hawa wakoloni, lakini sauti zao hazisikiki na hakuna mtetezi. Rais wao ndo huyo, maneno miiingi.....eti KILIMO KWANZA wakati infact kinanachotokea on the ground ni tofauti kabisa.

JK fungua macho jifunze kwa wenzio wanawafanyia nini wananchi wao, kama umeshindwa kuwa creative......just copy and paste mzee.