Dark Days Loom for Malawi Tobacco

LILONGWE, Nov 9 2012 (IPS) - The latest proposals by the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to stop farming of the crop could potentially affect about two million livelihoods in Malawi and decide the fate of an entire nation struggling with a sputtering economy.
This is according to the chief executive officer of Malawi’s Tobacco Control Commission, Bruce Munthali.
Tobacco is this southern African nation’s main foreign currency earner and accounts for more than 70 percent of exports and 15 percent of GDP. The industry employs an estimated two million of Malawi’s 13 million people. Continued