The Big Smoke

Having been working hard for the last couple of months and given some new Doctors have arrived from the UK I decided to take a few days off. First thing to do was go down to Lusaka to pick up my work permit. Like everything else here the process of getting this has moved slowly. Many months ago a whole multitude of forms were sent to the Zambian Medical Council (including a translation of my degree from Latin to English). Only once registered with them could a work permit be applied for.

The head office of the department of immigration is in a leafy relatively affluent area of Lusaka. Inside it looks like any public service building at home, various desks computers and large numbers off staff who appear to be doing very little. Despite all the computers I have to check myself through various hand written books to see if the permit is ready. On seeing that it is I am passed through various desks until I find the one from which to pick it up, most of the staff are sitting down looking around or taking calls on their mobiles. Anyways I get the permit go to a further desk to get my passport stamp and get out of there.

I have travelled the five hours to Lusaka with some others from St Francis. Sabina a Swedish nurse who has been here for a few months and is going to spend some time in an orphanage in the Copper belt and a Canadian couple Steph who is a nurse here in St Francis and Ben who is on a placement in Katete from Engineers without borders. We decide to go to a movie that evening.

While lots of people in Lusaka live in poverty there is wealth here, a couple of shopping centres similar to what we have at home and a cinema. The entry fee of K14,000 (about €2.40) is cheap compared to home but beyond the reach of the vast majority of Zambians. It is nice to see a movie and relax but several times the surreal-ness of the previous day being working in an isolated hospital and now being in a fancy modern cinema hits me.

There isn’t a lot to do in Lusaka so having completed our business we leave the next day. I have a couple of more days off and hit to Malawi. Whilst most people might go to Malawi to relax by the lake, swim or dive, my interest is in seeing Lilongwe’s famous tobacco auction floors. Malawi’s capital is considerably smaller than Lusaka but is a much shorter distance from Katete even allowing crossing the border and temporarily importing the car (I discover on the way back I should have temporarily exported it from Zambia, but this offence is overlooked on showing my newly acquired work permit and mentioning I work in St Francis).

The public are allowed to come see the tobacco auctions by appointment. I have arranged to get a tour at 9 am and after much getting lost in Lilongwe’s industrial area arrive about ten past and subsequently have to wait around, African style, for an hour and a half. Ronald from the communications department is going to show me around. He a short man, very neatly dressed friendly and cordial. He explains we have little time as he is busy preparing for a launch the following day of a company wide HIV/AIDS policy. There is a certain irony in a company involved in the business of selling carcinogenic tobacco taking an interest in their employee’s health but it is encouraging in many ways.

Ronald leads me onto the floors. We walk past a sign stating ‘To all our Customers, Please do not bribe our members of staff: It is unnecessary, It is Costly, It is evil’. We enter a massive shed the size of several playing pitches, there are bales of tobacco over the entire area and the whole place is a frantic hive of activity, people are hurrying here and there, buyers inspecting bags of tobacco, workers literally running with barrows bring new 200kg bales onto the floor. It is an impressive sight all the more so because all the people here are African, this is not some white dominated industry or a remnant of colonial times, it is indigenous commerce.

Ronald explains that in all ‘Auction Holdings Limited’ the company which runs the floors employs 4,000 people. The company is 42% government owned with the remainder in private ownership. The government he explains are keen to protect and promote the industry which accounts for 70% of Malawi’s foreign exports and 15% of its GDP.

The auctioneer proceeds along the rows of tobacco at an alarming pace selling each bale. He chants out words and prices at an incomprehensible speed, someone behind him takes note of the ticket on the bale and the buyer. About 10,000 bales are sold each day

I am interested to know who is buying and selling the tobacco. ‘80% comes from small farmers who produce 5-10 bales per year and can expect to get about $200 per bale’ outlines Ronald. The small farmers don’t come to Lilongwe to sell the tobacco themselves but instead sell to agents who then bring the tobacco to the auction. There are only five buyers, representatives from tobacco companies here in Malawi. These buy the dried leaf from the floors, process it and then export it to tobacco companies in China, the US and Europe where it is made into Cigarettes and other tobacco products. A few more steps along the chain someone in Ireland is forking out whatever it is, over eight euro for a pack of fags.

I guess the average smoker at home is spending about €3000 per year if smoking twenty per day. The tobacco farmer in Malawi has to survive on $1000-$2000 per year to support him and his family. I am unsure on the maths as to how many smokers’ habits his 1000-2000kg of tobacco feeds. It’s hard to know what view to take on this industry. On the one hand it provides valuable employment and capital into the country from export revenue. On the other hand tobacco is a harmful product the health effects of which I see everyday when working in General Practice at home. In addition there are reports of child labour in Malawi’s tobacco industry.

Perhaps the mission statement in Auction Holdings Limited reception sums up my confused thoughts on it ‘To play a leading role in improving and managing the best systems for handling and marketing tobacco and other products and services which are user friendly, fair and provide value to shareholders and other stakeholders.’