Zimbabwe Crop Beset by Spiraling Costs

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com Tuesday, June 27, 2006 06/28/2006

The Farmers' Development Trust chief executive officer, Mr Lovegot Tendengu, has warned that input prices will have to be kept in check if Zimbabwe's farmers are to produce a tobacco crop next season, according to a report in The Herald. Tobacco production costs for the 2006/07 season will rise sharply to $1.4 billion per hectare from under $200 million during the current season. And they could rise to $2 billion per hectare if critical inputs such as fertilizer and fuel were not regularly available, because such a situation would force farmers to turn to the parallel market, Tendengu said. With a target of 55,000 hectares planted to tobacco during 2006/07, the industry will need $15 trillion-$18 trillion for inputs. Enditem