Zimbabwe Tobacco Headed for Gloomy Season

Source from:  ENCA 04/01/2016

Zimbabwe's tobacco auction floors roared to life on Wednesday, with Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chairperson Monica Chinamasa saying the late onset of the rainy season had delayed the marketing season by about three weeks.

Despite projections that agriculture - the mainstay of the economy - will grow by 3,4 percent anchored on tobacco production, the golden leaf's marketing authorities say they expect sales to slump by 20 percent.

Last season, on November 5, 199-million kilogrammes of the golden leaf had been sold, raking in $586,4-million (R8,77-billion) in revenue.

During the comparative period in 2014, 216,2-million kilogrammes of the crop had gone under the hammer for $685,2m.

The trend shows production of the crop keeps sliding.

The El Niño-induced drought has seen a dip in the number of tobacco growers this season, with 72,000 having registered to sell their crop this season, down from 91,000 in the comparative season last season.

Of those registered, Chinamasa said 9,120 were new growers registering for the first time, down from 17,255 the previous season.

The TIMB chairperson said for the first time, electronic marketing of tobacco would be witnessed, "running side-by-side with the conventional system of marketing on the auction floor".

"TIMB is committed to increasing the efficiency of auction system by continuous implementation of reforms. E-marketing will significantly improve transparency in the pricing of tobacco and there is also an added advantage of accessing sales information in real time," Chinamasa said.

She said customers were now increasingly requesting tobacco products that were free from pesticide residues, free from non-tobacco related materials and products that comply with sustainable agricultural practices.

Agriculture and Mechanisation Minister Joseph Made told tobacco growers at the opening of the new season that there was a need to empower farmers on ways to overcome the adverse effects of low and erratic rainfall, mid-season droughts, extending the growing season and unlocking value for both crops and livestock.

He implored tobacco farmers to produce their tobacco using the recommended agronomic protocols in order to improve both the chemical and physical integrity of the product.

Made also told them that the 1,5 percent tobacco levy had been reduced by half. The government had re-introduced the levy at the beginning of last year.

"(The) government re-introduced a tobacco levy on tobacco growers at a rate of 1,5 percent of the selling price with effect from January 1, 2015. The quantum of the levy has been reduced to 0,75 percent with effect from January 1, 2016," he said.

The tobacco levy was re-introduced to finance re-afforestation activities such as awareness campaigns and training, after being scrapped in May 2005 to encourage smallholder farmers to produce the crop. Enditem