Zimbabwe Incentives will Boost 2007-08 Crop

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com Tuesday, August 22, 2006 08/23/2006

The positive effects of incentives introduced by the Rural Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will not be reaped until the 2007-08 tobacco production season, according to a report by Deborah-Fay Ndlovu in the Zimbabwe Standard. The Tobacco Industry Marketing Board's technical sales director, Dr Andrew Matibiri, said that, based on tobacco seed sales, Zimbabwe would produce about 60 million kg during 2007-08. Since crop planning started in January and the monetary policy was announced only at the end of July, the incentives, which include a 15% foreign currency retention scheme, were too late to have any impact on the 2007-08 season, he said. However, Dr Matibiri was optimistic that production would increase during the next two years because of the incentives. The 2005-06 production is thought to have dropped to an all time low of 50 million kg from last season's 74 million kg. So far, 44.5 million kg have been delivered for sale with the close of the selling season only two weeks away. However, those sales have earned US$89 million, up from US$70.39 million at the same stage of last season's sales, by which time 46.2 million kg had been delivered. Enditem