Chinese Equipment to Boost Tobacco Production

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com Zimbabwe, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 04/27/2007

China wants farm equipment that it is providing to Zimbabwe to be used in the production of tobacco, which China is eager to buy, according to an aljazeera report. The report said that Jia Qinglin, a senior Chinese Communist Party official, presented the equipment, including 424 tractors and 50 trucks, to Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, on Saturday. The equipment is supposed to replace that damaged when Mugabe's government seized white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks. Joseph Made, Zimbabwe's Minister of Agricultural Engineering and Mechanization, was quoted as saying the farm equipment was the "first phase" of purchases under a $58 million loan from the Chinese government. China is said to expect Zimbabwe to deliver 30 million kg by the end of the year, and as much as 80 million kg by the fifth year. Enditem