Tobacco Production Slumps in Zimbabwe

Source from:  February 21, 2006, By Andnetwork .com Angola Press  02/22/2006

A top agriculture official in Zimbabwe said on Monday that the output of the country`s main export, tobacco, will drop by 30 percent this year to 50 million kg owing to production difficulties farmers have faced during the growing season. Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) president James Delafargue said farmers lacked funding, inputs and faced exchange rate-related viability problems in the 2005/2006 season. He said continuing seizures of white-owned farms, under the government`s controversial land reforms, had also negatively impacted on tobacco production in the season. Last year Zimbabwe produced 73 million kg of tobacco, the country`s main export, and had projected an increase in production to 160 million kg this year. "Farmers did not have inputs and had problems raising the required funding for the crop which has reduced the crop size. They have also faced viability problems from last season`s crop," Delafargue said. Tobacco production in Zimbabwe, dominated by white farmers, has dropped from a peak of over 250 million kg five years ago after the government drove off whites from the farms to pave way for the resettlement of landless black peasants. As a result, the country has suffered chronic shortages of foreign currency, the bulk of which was earned from tobacco sales. Enditem