Zambia to Earn $40m From Tobacco

Source from:  The Times of Zambia (Ndola) Times Reporter 06/28/2004

AGRICULTURE Minister Mundia Sikatana has said Zambia expects to earn about US$40 million (K190 billion) from an estimated 30 million kilogrammes of tobacco to be produced this season. The minister also said that about 60, 000 new jobs were created in the tobacco sector from the 15, 000 hectares of land grown during the 2003/04 farming season. Mr Sikatana was speaking in Lusaka yesterday when he opened the 40th annual congress of the Tobacco Association of Zambia (TAZ). He said while Government was pleased with the increase recorded in tobacco production over the years, the challenge for the growers was to hit the 50,000 hectares target of planted land by 2007/08 season. The minister added that if this was done, it would provide a total farm workforce of not less than 200,000 while yields to hit the 100 million kilogramme mark whose earnings would be about $200 million (K1.1 trillion). "This increase can be achieved through increased hectarage by existing tobacco farmers and an increased yield per hectare for both small and large scale farmers," Mr Sikatana said. He said in its efforts to resolve the perennial tobacco processing problems, Government appointed a special technical committee that had been given a task of coming up with the private sector initiative for resolving the issues of tobacco processing and export of green leaf tobacco in the country. The minister further challenged the tobacco merchants to establish two new processing plants in the west of Luangwa region and another in the east of Luangwa by 2005 and 2006 respectively to ensure that all the crop produced in Zambia was processed locally. Meanwhile, TAZ president Dave Gordon said the issue of child labour had been identified as one of the social responsibilities by the association together with issues of afforestation, land conservation and on farm safety. Enditem