Zimbabwe to Reintroduce Foreign Currency Accounts for Tobacco Farmers

Source from:  Xinhua  06/19/2006

The Zimbabwean central bank announced on Thursday that it would reintroduce foreign currency accounts for tobacco farmers starting in the 2006-07 season to enhance the viability of growers. "There are structural issues being addressed and we will reinstate the FCA scheme in the next season," said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono. The foreign currency retention scheme was scrapped two years ago with the RBZ opting to give farmers support prices and early delivery bonuses. Gono could however not reveal the proportions of the retention scheme saying it was still premature to disclose them. "The retention proportions will be sufficient enough to be able to cushion you from all the vagaries of exchange rate distortions, " he said when addressing participants attending the 45th annual congress of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association in the capital of Harare. He said the central bank wanted to see in the near future, the operation of market forces for the economy to fully recover, adding that critical sectors such as tobacco needed to be left to take charge of their destiny. Tobacco is one of the country's top foreign currency earners. Enditem