Zim fails to meet tobacco target
Sunday, 14 August 2011 19:22
BY OUR STAFF
ZIMBABWE has missed the 170 million kg tobacco production target set for the
industry this year as the selling season for the “golden leaf” comes to an
end on Thursday.
A clean-up sale will be held on September 20 and, depending on the volume of
deliveries, would continue for more than one day, until all delivered
tobacco has been sold.
Statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (Timb) show that
129,9m kg, a 11% increase from the same period last year, had been auctioned
at the country’s three auction floors by Thursday.
Tobacco sales raked in US$356 582 527, representing a 4% increase from the
same period last year.
At best the sales would reach 140 million kg more than 17% short of the
target.
Andrew Matibiri, the Timb CEO conceded on Friday that the target would not
be met, attributing it to unfavourable weather conditions that had some
areas experiencing very wet spells while others went through a drought
period.
He said handling losses also affected deliveries to the floors.
“Tobacco Research Board records that losses were at 21% and in some cases
31%,” he said.
Matibiri said farmers were not selling their low quality crop, arguing that
“it is too costly to bring it to the auction floors”.
At the beginning of the season, Timb set a target of 170m kg. Last season
123m kg of tobacco were auctioned and Timb hoped the favourable prices
offered would increase deliveries to the three auction floors this year.
However, the tobacco industry can take comfort in the fact that it had
reduced the percentage of rejected bales to 7% by Thursday from 8,28%
recorded in the same period last year.
Bales are rejected when they are, among other reasons, oversize, underweight
or overweight.
They can also be rejected if they are badly handled (too wet or too dry) and
mouldy.
Matibiri said the tobacco seed sold so far would cover 91 000 hectares of
the crop.
Zimbabwe’s tobacco production is on a rebound, buoyed by the favourable
prices on the auctions.
The high prices have driven farmers to prefer cash crops to staple food such
as maize, whose price is controlled by government.
Tobacco was the backbone of Zimbabwe’s flourishing economy in the 1980s
until the late 90s, as good quality leaf was known to originate from the
country.
But the fast-track land reform programme decimated tobacco production as the
new breed of farmers lacked the skills and capital to grow the crop in the
absence of financing from banks.