Mozambique: Country to Export 43,000 Tonnes of Tobacco

Source from:  Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique 09/03/2009

The tobacco producing company in the western Mozambican province of Tete, the Mozambique Leaf Tobacco, is planning to export up to 43,000 tonnes of this product by the end of this. The company's general manager, Rod Hagger, told AIM that exports this year are set to increase by about 4,000 tonnes if compared with last year's. 'We exported 39,000 tonnes to different countries across the world last year, and we expect to export 43,000 tonnes this year, which represents an increase by 4,000 tonnes', he said. He explained that his company will export to Europe, to Russia, to Latin America, to Australia, South Africa, and other countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Mozambique Leaf Tobacco is currently employing 4,000 workers in their processing factory in Tete, and also supporting 120,000 farmers in Tete, in the central Zambezia, and in the northern Niassa provinces. Tobacco is one of the most important cash crops in Tete, alongside cotton, and other crops such as maize, cassava, millet, rice, among others. This is one of the products that most contributed to the volume of exports in Tete between 2005 and 2008, that grew from 2.38 billion meticais (about 89 million US dollars at current exchange rates) to 3.48 billion meticais, which represents a growth of 46.4 per cent. To this growth also contributed exports of electricity from the Cahora Bassa dam and kapenta fish, from the Cahora Bassa artificial lake. Mozambique Leaf Tobacco was classified in 2008, by the Institute for the Promotion of Exports (IPEX), as the greatest export, if one excludes the mega-projects. Enditem