Zimbabwe: Zim Expected to Produce 70 Million Kg of Tobacco

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) January 11, 2007 01/12/2007

ZIMBABWE is projected to produce about 70 million kilogrammes of tobacco during the 2006-7 season, up from the 55 million kg that were sold last season, Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union president Mr Wilson Nyabonda said yesterday. In an interview, Mr Nyabonda said a total of 47 000 hectares of tobacco have been planted so far out of a target of 55 000 hectares and farmers were still submitting the returns. Last season 44 000 hectares were put under the crop. Mr Nyabonda said out of the 47 000 hectares that had been planted as of December last year, 14 000 hectares were under irrigation. He said some farmers were still planting owing to the erratic rains that were experienced at the beginning of the season "Generally, the condition of the crop is well with harvesting of the early planted crop having started. Farmers are still planting because of the late rains," Mr Nyabonda said. However, the ZCFU chief said the farmers were facing a number of challenges and these included shortage of coal for curing the tobacco. He said generally although there had been an improvement in the supply of coal, more still needed to be done to meet the demand by the farmers. The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board has also expressed concern over the delays in coal supplies to cure tobacco. TIMB technical services director Dr Andrew Matibiri recently said coal supplies from Hwange Colliery Company fell short of demand and his organisation was lobbying for more. About a month ago, Hwange Colliery assured the tobacco industry that there would be enough coal following the commission of Chaba Open Cast Mine's new equipment sourced from China. Tobacco is Zimbabwe's largest single foreign currency earner although production has been plummeting since 2000. Enditem