Zambia: Tobacco Board Embarks on Global Promotion

Source from:  Zambia Daily Mail 05/25/2016

The Tobacco Board of Zambia (TBZ) has embarked on the promotion of Zambian tobacco on the global market to attract foreign investors and buyers to enhance competition in the sector.

Currently, the sector has few players participating in the buying of tobacco from farmers. This is negatively affecting competition in the industry.

TBZ chief executive officer Samson Muyembe said one of the major challenges affecting the development of the tobacco industry in the country is the marketing of the commodity due to limited buyers.

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr Muyembe said the board is also in THE process of engaging the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) to help attract more investors and buyers to enhance competition in the sector.

"There is need to increase the participation of investors and buyers in the tobacco industry to encourage competition which will result in an increase in producer prices. To improve the number of players in the industry, we are working to attract more foreign and local investors.

"We want to attract more foreign and local investors by vigorously advertising Zambia's tobacco on the world market and working with other institutions such as the ZDA to help bring as many players as possible to boost the sector. If you look at the quality of tobacco we have, it's one of the best in the region," he said.

Mr Muyembe said TBZ is encouraging more players in the sector to fill the gap because tobacco requires high start-up capital.

He said farmers need external funding with inputs, especially that tobacco production is costly.

Meanwhile, Mr Muyembe said TBZ has registered over 20,000 commercial and small-scale farmers in the 2015/16 marketing season and buying will be restricted to registered growers to control and regulate the market.

The decision is in accordance with the law on tobacco which states that: "Any grower or any person, organisation or association who is bona fide to grow or intends to grow tobacco ought to be registered with TBZ." Enditem