Zim 2014 Tobacco crop seen beating 2013 Harvest by industry

Zim 2014 Tobacco crop seen beating 2013 Harvest by industry
Published: 17 January 2014
Zimbabwe's output of tobacco this year may exceed 2013's harvest as the number of farmers registered to grow the leaves surged 32 percent, the head of the nation's marketing board said.

"Although we don't have a crop estimate for this year, for now we're confident that we will surpass the 166.5 million kilograms (367 million pounds) we reached last year," Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board Chief Executive Officer Andrew Matibiri said in a phone interview yesterday from his offices in the capital, Harare.

While the selling season is set to begin on Feb. 19, late rains in some growing areas have delayed predictions for the harvest, Matabiri said.

To date, 86,000 growers have registered, compared with 65,000 in the same period last year, he said. While sales rose 16 percent last year, they missed the nation's 170 million-kilogram target, the board said in September.

Zimbabwe earned $621.1 million from tobacco in 2013.


At the peak of output, the southern African country produced 236 million kilograms of tobacco, which is commonly referred to as the golden leaf locally and is grown mainly by small-scale farmers. Prior to a violent land-reform program supported by President Robert Mugabe, which began in 2000, the country grew most of its tobacco on large commercial farms.

Zimbabwe traditionally competes with countries including Brazil and the U.S. as a key source of the top-quality variety of the crop known as fluecured tobacco.

- Bloomberg
Tags: Tobacco,

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