By Moses Nyirenda

Lilongwe, May 27, Mana: Minister of Labour, Agnes Nyalonje has advised tobacco growers and concerned players in tobacco industry to avoid child and forced labour when producing tobacco if the country’s tobacco is to attract international buyers.

She made the remarks on Monday in Lilongwe during the launch of Agriculture Labour Practice Code for Malawi which was organized by The Tobacco Commission and Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT).

Nyalonje said that tobacco produced using child and forced labour do not please tobacco buyers on international market hence the stakeholders in tobacco production in the country should involve it when producing their tobacco.

“As far as the customers of tobacco are concerned globally, any tobacco which was produced using child and forced labour cannot sell on a global stage.

Therefore because Malawi’s economy is dependent on tobacco it is the duty of all the players in the industry to make sure we do not use child and forced labour if we are to sell our tobacco on the global market,” Nyalonje said.

She therefore commended the launching of Agriculture Labour Practice Code for Malawi saying it would help address the issue of child, forced labour and exploitation of workers which occur during tobacco production.

“The code is going to enforce that we achieve wellbeing of the workers and children, through that we will improve productivity of our tobacco and that will facilitate the generation of more forex,” she said.

Speaking at the same function Tobacco Commission Board Chairperson, Dr Godfrey Chapola said there is need to take concrete steps in dealing with issues of child and forced labour in the country’s tobacco industry if the industry is to thrive.

He further applauded the launching of Agriculture Labour Practice Code for Malawi saying that would help deal with human rights violations which happen in tobacco production in the country.

“At the Tobacco Commission, we are happy that after more than 100 years of tobacco production, the industry now has a way of dealing with human rights violations in the production of our green gold,” Chapola said.

ECLT Foundation National Consultant, Andrew Namakhoma said the launching of Agriculture Labour Practice Code for Malawi is great milestone for the country highlighting that it would assist to monitor and follow what is happening in tobacco industry.

The launch of Agriculture Labour Practice Code for Malawi brought together officials from Ministry of Labour, Tobacco Commission, Agricultural Research and Extension Trust (ARET) as well as other key stakeholders from the country’s tobacco industry.