Tobacco marketing season officially opens, dominated by new farmers

Published: 10 June 2013

The 2013 tobacco marketing selling season opened on Wednesday with beneficiaries of President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme forming the majority of those who brought their bundles to be sold at market.

Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the farmers who cultivate small plots were expected to deliver the bulk of the crop, saying it was vindication of the controversial expropriation of thousands of white-owned farms.

"This is a clear achievement of our land reform programme," Made said at the opening of the auction sale in the capital Harare.

"It is expected that during the marketing season more than half of the tobacco will come from small-scale farmers, that is communal and A1 (small-scale) farmers who now constitute 82% of the total registered farmers," he added.

Long, winding lines of pick-up trucks and lorries carrying massive bales formed outside the Tobacco Sales Floor, with some the farmers having arrived at the auctions as early as 3:00 am.

The highest quality leaves on auction fetching $4.89 per kilogram against $4.45/kg last year. Prices for the first sales of the opening day were ranging between $4.89 for the highest grade to $2.30.

Zimbabwe is expecting total tobacco deliveries to reach 170 million kilograms this year, up from 144 million kilograms last year.

In 2012 the country earned a record $517m from tobacco sales, according to the finance ministry.

The tobacco crop accounted for 10.7% of the country's GDP in 2012 and constituted 21.8% of total exports, compared to 9.2% for other agriculture commodities.

Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere called on banks to do more to support agriculture.

Kasukuwere said the attitude by banks of not supporting agriculture must be stopped. "This kind of attitude must go and we must support our farmers," he said.

He said if financial sectors were to assist farmers the country would witness an increase in tobacco volumes which are grown every year.

The Tobacco Industry Marketing Board says the number of growers has increased from about 35 000 last year to 66 100, most of them small-scale black farmers.

The chairperson of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, Mrs Monica Chinamasa applauded small scale farmers’ contribution to the growth of the industry and condemned side marketing.

She said, "We want famers who stick to the rules of the industry. Small-scale famers are greatly contributing to the industry."

Farmers who had their crop sold during the official opening expressed mixed feelings on the pricing of the crop this year, with some calling for the responsible authorities to ensure that they get value for their products.

Government figures show that China bought 40% of the total tobacco exports from the southern African nation at an average price of $2.88 per kilogramme.

Tobacco accounts for more than 50% of agricultural exports, which amounts to about 30% of Zimbabwe's total exports.

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Tags: Tobacco,