Jump to full article: Daily Times (mw), 2009-05-05
Author: Thom Khanje
Intro: Malawi will continue to promote tobacco production until viable alternatives are identified, Principle Secretary for Agriculture Andrew Daudi has said.
He was speaking at Sunbird Livingstonia Hotel in Salima where he officially opened an annual meeting of the International Tobacco Growers Association - ITGA for African tobacco growing countries.
Daudi said although Malawi appreciates efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) to regulate tobacco production and marketing through the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control due to health risks associated with smoking, the country could not just abandon tobacco production overnight because of its significance to the economy and people's livelihood in the country.
He urged the WHO to actively engage government of tobacco growing countries as well as grower associations in finding proper means of addressing the problems of tobacco. . . .
The meeting in Salima has brought together participants from Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and Uganda. The ITGA was founded in 1983 to advance the interests of tobacco growing countries in the world.
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