Tobacco Harvest to Shrink Further 40%

Source from:  Bloomberg 03/30/2009

ZIMBABWE'S official tobacco harvest may fall as much as 40 percent to 42 million kilograms this year as destitute farmers sell the leaf illegally, the government's Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board said. The southern African nation last year produced an estimated 70 million kilograms of tobacco leaf. The exact size of the crop may be difficult to measure because poor farmers are selling their leaf on the black market, Andrew Matibiri, chief executive officer of the board, said this week. "The practice is illegal, but some farmers are desperate because they're facing challenges," said Matibiri. Under Zimbabwean law, tobacco can only be sold on auction or to licensed merchants. Farmers are selling tobacco for as little as $1 a kilogram, compared with an average price of $3.20 a kilogram last year, the marketing board chief said. The southern African nation produces flue-cured tobacco that rivals the United States for quality. Tobacco production in Zimbabwe has plummeted since 2000, when President Robert Mugabe authorised the often-violent seizure of most white-owned farms. That year, the country produced 236 million kilograms of tobacco, making it the world's second-largest exporter after Brazil. Since then Zimbabwe has slumped to the world's sixth-largest exporter after Brazil, India, the U.S., the European Union and Argentina. Enditem