Zimbabwe: Tobacco Season Starts Next Week

Source from:  The Zimbabwean 02/05/2013

THE 2013 Tobacco selling season will begin on February 13, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) announced today.

TIMB said contract farming will begin on February 14. Three auction floors – Tobacco Sales Floor, Boka Tobacco Floor and Premier Tobacco Auction will be handling farmers' tobacco this year.

TIMB said sales bookings opened today with deliveries expected on Thursday this week Some US$500 million worth of tobacco was sold in the 2011-2012 marketing season.

Statistics released by TIMB showed that the country earned US$525 million for 144 million kgs of tobacco during the season, a 46 percent increase from last year's US$360 million.

Overall output missed the 150 million kgs production target for the just ended season but tobacco farming continues to rebound after years of decline.

Last season's 144 million kgs was the highest production achieved since land was redistributed to indigenous Zimbabweans over a decade ago.

Of the total, 52 million kgs were sold through auction and the remainder via a contract system.

TIMB said the average price per kg this year was US$3,66 compared to US$2,77 last year.

Tobacco is one of Zimbabwe's major agricultural exports and accounts for 10,7 percent of Gross Domestic Product.

Major export destinations include China, United Kingdom, South Africa, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius and Russia. Enditem