The 2024 tobacco marketing season opened in Harare on Wednesday, 13 March, with the first bale going under the hammer for US$4.92 per kilogramme up from US$4.35 registered on day one last year.
Speaking at the official opening of this year’s tobacco marketing season, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga expressed optimism that deliveries will be high despite the current drought. He said:
I am happy that the estimates which I have been given, regardless of the difficult year we have all experienced, will not go down below those of 2021, the figures will be hovering above.
While we will not get the 300 million kg we wanted, I am happy that the irrigated crop has proved to be good. The 2024 season is looking good, we will recover.
Government regards the tobacco industry as a sector with great potential to grow and increase our country’s export earnings.
This realisation led to the launch of the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan.
Tobacco production is this year expected to be around 265 million kilogrammes, below last year’s 296 million kg due to the El Niño-induced drought.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chairman Patrick Devenish revealed that this year 113 101 hectares were planted compared to 117 645 hectares last year and registered growers had decreased to 115 114 from 148 300 last year. He said:
The Board has also approved decentralised contract sales to be conducted at five designated centres and these are Karoi, Mvurwi, Bindura, Marondera and Rusape.
This season, RBZ (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) advised that the foreign currency retention for tobacco is 75 per cent in line with the retention level for other market players.
Despite our efforts to restore order and sanity in the industry, we are still grappling with the challenge of growers who continue to cut down indigenous trees for curing tobacco.
The cutting down of indigenous trees is attracting a lot of negative attention from the global market, with some threatening to stop partnering with us.
To alleviate this challenge, the board has partnered with Hwange Colliery and Kutsaga to provide tobacco farmers with discounted coal for curing.
This year two auction floors; Tobacco Sales Floor and Premier Tobacco Auction Floors, have been licenced by TIMB.
The floors handle deliveries of tobacco not grown under contract and help create the pricing system that then applies to the contracted crops, with adjustments up and down for quality.
SOURCE : THE HERALD
