BAT to finance Zimbabwean Tobacco Farmers

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com Tuesday, September 26, 2006 09/28/2006

British American Tobacco Zimbabwe (BATZ) will finance tobacco farmers for the 2006/2007 farming season in an effort to boost output," reports The Herald. "We will be supporting tobacco farmers together with our sister company, Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers' Co., which will be providing expertise so that more of the crop will be grown to support the domestic and foreign markets," said BATZ managing director Gary Fagan. "Once the central bank approves our plan we will begin to disburse the funds to the farmers for the coming season." BATZ recorded a 29 percent drop in sales in the six months to June 30 2006, which the firm attributed to foreign currency scarcity and interest rate instability. Enditem