‘It’s time to stop singing the tobacco song’ – Minister

Agriculture Minister Roza Mbilizi has urged Malawi to move beyond its traditional dependence on tobacco as a major source of foreign exchange, arguing that the country must develop other value chains capable of generating the dollars it needs.

Mbilizi made the call in Parliament on Tuesday while responding to Leader of Opposition Simplex Chithyola Banda, who had raised concerns over declining tobacco sales and their potential impact on Malawi’s foreign exchange reserves.

Chithyola Banda told Parliament that Malawi had sold about 56 million kilogrammes of tobacco by a comparable period in 2025, compared with only 29.01 million kilogrammes this year.

He said last year’s sales had generated about US$68 million, equivalent to around K120 billion, stressing that tobacco remains critical to Malawi’s foreign exchange position.

But while acknowledging the importance of tobacco, Mbilizi said Malawi could no longer afford to rely on the crop as its main answer to the country’s foreign exchange challenges.

“It’s high time that Malawi looked at other avenues and not just sing the song that we’ve always sung, that tobacco is the only forex and is the largest,” she said.

The minister’s remarks point to a broader challenge facing Malawi: how to create a more diversified economy that can generate foreign currency even when tobacco production or sales decline.

Mbilizi said government is already looking beyond tobacco, while also working towards adding value to the crop locally instead of continuing to rely predominantly on exports of raw tobacco.

She said the government’s long-term vision is to see Malawi producing tobacco-based products within the country, allowing the country to capture more value from an industry that has traditionally generated foreign exchange through raw tobacco exports.

The minister’s comments came as Chithyola Banda called for government to re-engage tobacco buyers to ensure that farmers receive better prices for the remaining crop.

Chithyola Banda warned that farmers were becoming frustrated and could be discouraged from growing tobacco if they continued to receive poor returns.

Mbilizi assured Parliament that government was working to protect farmers’ interests, including reviewing levies paid by growers and engaging tobacco buyers as partners in developing the industry.

She said government would provide a comprehensive assessment of the tobacco marketing season at its conclusion, including the volume sold and comparisons with previous seasons.

For Malawi, however, the debate goes beyond the current tobacco season. With farmers demanding better returns and the country continuing to need foreign currency, the government is now signalling that the future of Malawi’s economy cannot rest on one crop alone.

The challenge will be turning that call for diversification into viable industries capable of creating jobs, supporting farmers and bringing much-needed foreign exchange into the country.