Zimbabwe''s Tobacco Prices Hit All Time High

Source from:  African Business Review 01/15/2013

The outlook for tobacco production in Zimbabwe looks rosy with export prices reaching an all time high and production for 2013 set to increase.

Tobacco production in Zimbabwe hit an all time high in 2012 and is expected to do even better this year with the country targeting to produce 170 million kilogrammes of the crop.

 

During 2012, exports reached US$771 million averaging a price of US$5, 94 per kilogramme, which is the highest annual average export price reached since dollarization.
 
Figures released by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) revealed there is still a further 95,3 million kilogrammes of tobacco in stocks so the earnings are set to rise even higher once everything is marketed.
 
However, exports went down from 17 million kilogrammes in November to seven million kilogrammes in December.
 
TIMB Chief Executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said: "In 2011, a total of 10 million kilogrammes were exported during the same period with the seasonal exports ending with 129, 7 million kilogrammes, which is 10 percent below the 2012 levels. More than 42 percent of tobacco was exported to China."
 
In 2011 just over 144 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf that was exported earned the country US$730 million at the average price of US$5, 06 per kilogramme.
 
The exact national stock position is likely to be known at the end of January once the annual stock reconciliation is completed.
 
The rosy picture for 2013 has been augmented by 65,199 farmers already registering crops for this year compared to last year's figure of 34,673 registrations for the same period.
 
Matibiri said: "We have also registered 1,225 farmers for burley tobacco while another 499 have been registered for dark air cured tobacco."
 
A total of 32 buyers had applied for licences to purchase the tobacco by the end of December 2012, 17 of them have applied for auction floor buying while 15 have applied for contract floor buying.
 
He said: "We are still processing their applications and we expect to conclude the process within the next few days. We will also start inspection of floors soon. This time around we have licensed three floors only -- Boka Tobacco Floors, Tobacco Sales Floor and Premier Tobacco Floors." Enditem