Zimbabwe Earns 1 Mln Dollars From Tobacco

Source from:  Xinhua  09/11/2006

Zimbabwe has so far earned a total of 107.5 million U.S. dollars this year by selling 53.4 million kg of flue cured tobacco, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board on Thursday. This is compared with 57.8 million kg worth 92.4 million dollars sold during the same period last year. The flue cured tobacco selling season that was due to end on Aug. 31 has been extended to Friday this week to accommodate farmers who had not finished selling their crop. The burley marketing season, which started late in July has also been extended to Sept. 15. The flue cured tobacco selling season started on April 25 with an estimated 55 million kg of tobacco expected to go under the hammer this year, down from 70 million kg sold last year. During this year's marketing season, the bulk of the crop was sold through the contract system that accounted for 55 percent while the traditional auction floors accounted for the remaining 45 percent. Tobacco is one of the country's major foreign currency earners. Enditem