Mozambique Gets Tobacco-Processing Plant

Source from:  Tete, Mozambique, 05/09 05/10/2006

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza has inaugurated the country`s first tobacco processing plant, built by Mozambique Leaf Tobacco (MLT) at the cost of $55 million in the western city of Tete. Before the factory was built by MLT, a subsidiary of the US-based Universal Leaf Africa Company, Mozambican producers had to take their tobacco across the border into Zimbabwe or Malawi for processing. The factory dedicated here Sunday, hopes to process and export 24,000 tonnes of tobacco this year, which should earn some $50 million. Its installed capacity is 50,000 tonnes of tobacco yearly. Tobacco is currently grown by approximately 80,000 peasant farmers in Tete, Zambezia, Manica, Niassa and Nampula provinces. The growing areas are granted as concessions to companies, including Mozambique Leaf Tobacco, who provide the peasants with inputs and purchase their tobacco. The government has made clear that it favours companies that will add value to raw materials by processing them inside Mozambique. Of the tobacco concessionary companies, only MLT was prepared to build a processing plant, thus others had their contracts cancelled. Enditem