Zimbabwe: Tobacco Seed in High Demand

Source from:  The Herald  07/05/2013

Close to a tonne of tobacco seed has been sold so far as demand for the commodity continues to increase, the Tobacco Research Board has said.

TRB acting general manager Dr Dehlia Garwe said a farmer requires five grammes of seed to cover a hectare of seedbed.

She said there had been a huge and unprecedented demand for tobacco seed this season with the

institution having already run out of the favourite variety.

"There has been a huge and unprecedented demand for tobacco seed this year in particular for one of our popular varieties KRK66 (T66) which has just gone onto the open release," she said.

Dr Garwe said TRB had run out of the seed variety T66 and advised growers to buy KRK 29(T29) although it was a slower variety than T66.

Growers could also buy T64 at Kutsaga Research Station or any of the TRB information kiosks at the tobacco auction floors.

Tobacco production has been on the increase with more than 53 848 growers having registered to grow the crop next season.

15 329 growers

Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board statistics show that as at June 21, 15 329 growers had registered to grow the crop for the first time.

These are mostly communal farmers who are shifting from cotton and maize.

More than 10 350 communal farmers have joined the tobacco industry while 851 are from the A1 sector, 3 600 are A2 farmers and 555 are from the small-scale farming sector.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has earned US$577,3 million from the sale of 156,2 million kg sold at an average price of US$3,70 per kg since the marketing season opened on February 13.

The volume of tobacco sold to date is a 20,4　percent improvement from the 130 million kg worth US$480 million sold during the comparable period last year.

TIMB statistics show that of the total tobacco sold 103 million kg were through contract sales while the remainder went under the hammer.

The 2013 flue-cured tobacco selling season will close on Friday, July 5 after 99 selling days while the 2012 selling season lasted 145 days.

Last year, Zimbabwe produced about 144,5 million kg of tobacco against a projection of 130 million kg, with sales raking in US$527,6 million.

This season, 170 million kg were targeted to go under the hammer. Enditem