Zimbabwe tobacco output rebounds, up 100 percent
Fri Sep 3, 2010 12:25pm GMT
* Output hits 119 mln kg vs 58.6 mln kg in previous season
* Country earns $327 million from sales
* 2011 yield seen at 200 million kg
* Production still below record of 236 million kg
By Nelson Banya
HARARE, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe produced 119 million kg of tobacco in
the 2009/10 season, double the previous year’s output, an official said on
Friday, as the sector recovers from the damage to commercial farming
associated with land seizures.
The southern African country’s tobacco yield plunged from a peak of 236
million kg in 2000, before President Robert Mugabe embarked on a drive to
take white-owned commercial farms to resettle landless blacks, to 48 million
kg in 2007/08.
Zimbabwe’s economy, devastated by hyperinflation which peaked at 500 billion
percent in December 2008, has stabilised since last year when Mugabe was
forced into sharing power with bitter rival Morgan Tsvangirai, now prime
minister, after disputed elections.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive officer
Andrew Matibiri told Reuters total sales could rise to 120 million kg at the
end of the tobacco-selling season on Friday.
“As of yesterday, 119.4 million kg of tobacco had gone through the auctions,
compared to 58.6 million kg last year,” Matibiri said.
“The sales have realised $347 million, at an average of $2.91 per kg.”
Matibiri said output was projected to be higher next year.
“For the next season we have recorded seed sales enough for 105,000 hectares
and from that planting area, if everything goes well, we can get anything up
to 200 million kg,” Matibiri said.
“But that’s assuming the rains and other conditions are favourable.”
Western firms were formerly the main purchasers of Zimbabwean tobacco but
Chinese interests have emerged as major financiers and buyers in recent
years. Industry officials estimate that a third of the tobacco crop was
taken up by China.
According to official figures, over 40,000 small-scale black farmers
produced 70 percent of the tobacco crop. The remainder was from large-scale
commercial farmers, of whom just over 120 are white farmers. In all, about
400 white farmers remain.
Critics accuse Mugabe of destroying the economy through his farm seizures.
The veteran ruler — in power since independence from Britain in 1980 —
accuses Western governments opposed to his rule of plotting to unseat him
through economic sanctions.