Zimbabwe: Country Falls Out of World Top 5 Tobacco Exporters

Source from:  Zimbabwe Independent (Harare) 03/28/2007

ZIMBABWE has lost its place among the world's top five tobacco exporters due to dwindling output largely caused by disturbances on farms, lack of critical inputs and a fixed exchange rate. According to January's global production figures from the US Department of Agriculture, the top five exporters are now listed as Brazil, the United States, India, Malawi and China. Zimbabwe used to occupy the second spot after Brazil as the world's top exporter of tobacco. The country's tobacco, once the most-sought after by the world's blenders, significantly experienced a major decline last year, hitting an low output figure of 55 million kg last year, the lowest output since 1972. Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association (ZTGA) president Julius Ngorima said the decline in output was largely a result of late disbursement of inputs and a fixed exchange rate which had forced farmers to reduce the amount of hectarage planted. Delays in the processing of loan applications with banks had also weighed down production during the year, he said. "If inputs are made available on time while attractive incentives are offered, production would increase," Ngorima said. The latest global production figures also revealed that the country had been overtaken by Malawi as the continent's largest exporter of tobacco. Zimbabwe is expecting to harvest about 80 million kg of tobacco this year. Tobacco production in Zimbabwe has been declining over the years from a peak of just over 236 million kg in 2000 to current levels. A new breed of black farmers, who displaced former white land owners under an agrarian reform, is said by experts to lack the technical expertise and collateral to secure loans and inputs. In 2001, about 202 million kg went under the hammer while 165,84 million kg, 81,81million kg and 69 million kg were sold in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively. A total of 73,3 million kg and 55,5 million kg were sold in 2005 and 2006 respectively. Tobacco farmers who spoke to businessdigest said it was going to be difficult for the country to regain its status as one of the top exporters of tobacco in the world since the infrastructure conducive for tobacco production was no longer in place and there was a massive shortage of labour in the tobacco growing sector. Three types of tobacco are grown in Zimbabwe. These include flue-cured Virginia which is produced by large scale commercial farmers. The other two are burley and oriental tobacco which are grown by peasant farmers. Oriental tobacco accounts for less than 1% of total Zimbabwean tobacco output. Despite dwindling output, tobacco remains Zimbabwe's major foreign currency earner.