Zimbabwean Tobacco-Seed Sales Increase 66%, According to State Board

Source from:  Bloomberg News 08/19/2010

Tobacco-seed sales in Zimbabwe increased 66 percent from a year earlier as of Aug. 1, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board said. The board sold 581,242 grams (1,281 pounds) of the seed, compared with 349,165 grams at the same time last year, Chief Executive Officer Andrew Matibiri said in a phone interview from Harare today. The seed is sufficient to plant 96,872 hectares (239,375 acres) this year, Matibiri said. Some seed usually finds its way to Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, where tobacco seed isn't produced in viable quantities. "We estimate the 2010-11 crop will produce about 150 million kilograms (330 million pounds) for sale next year," the CEO said. Zimbabwe had sold 109.6 million kilograms of mainly flue- cured leaf by Aug. 9, when Matibiri said sales this year may come to 115 million kilograms. Tobacco is normally planted between September and November and sold between February and October the following year. The southern African nation produces leaves that are used to flavor cigarettes such as Marlboro and Benson & Hedges. Production of flue-cured tobacco, also known as Virginia tobacco, has increased in the last two years, recovering from a decline amid the seizure of white-owned commercial farms to redistribute to black subsistence farmers deprived of land during colonial rule. Enditem