Zimbabwe: Poor Planning Costs Tobacco Sector

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) 24 April 2008 04/25/2008

ZIMBABWE'S tobacco industry has historically served as a major source of foreign currency with the crop being renowned worldwide for its high quality. Indeed, the famous Zimbabwean tobacco flavour found in most cigarettes makes a compelling case for the country to remain steadfast in supporting tobacco growers. However, there is concern that tobacco growers and the sector in general cannot register continued growth and development, without sustained and systematic support in this specialised sector. Last Tuesday's events bear testimony to apparent lack of the sustained support when the 2008 flue-cured tobacco selling season failed to take off. This is the third year running after a number of sticking points returned once again to stall this year's opening session. And it is the same issues that have haunted the last two seasons -- a new support price, a new exchange rate and the payment of outstanding foreign currency accounts settlements. Can this be an indication that we are unable to learn from past experiences and mistakes? We believe that what it simply shows is the fact that somewhere along the line of people tasked with the responsibility of tobacco sales, there are some not doing their job timeously. They must take the full blame. There is just lack of planning and preparedness for important events that we all know happen every year. We need not continue reminding each other that lack of planning and preparedness is a recipe for disaster. And when the disaster happens, the consequences are too ghastly to contemplate. A good number of tobacco farmers had delivered their crop to the sales floors on the opening day only to leave a disappointed lot after being told about the stalled opening. Surely, this is not in the best interest of the development of our economy, which looks up to tobacco as one of the major sources of foreign currency. This also has some knock on effect on the economy, starting with the tobacco farmers and others who also rely on tobacco earnings for their continued operations. For example, tobacco farmers expect to use their earnings to fund the next season's crop, pay off loans and other costs such as labour. There are also companies that have contract farming arrangements with tobacco growers where they extend credit in the form of inputs and expect to get their share from the tobacco sales. The way forward is planning, which involves ironing out all sticking points. Any further delays in finding solutions to outstanding issues that have caused the postponement in the opening of the tobacco selling season will only serve as a disincentive to tobacco farmers. There are many small-scale tobacco farmers who have come on board and we need more of them. We should all yearn for the country's tobacco industry to remain a strategic foreign currency earner. And this should be notwithstanding increasing international reports of a global threat for extinction of tobacco business due to health related laws. Enditem