The number of farmers who have registered to grow tobacco in the 2015/16 summer cropping season has declined

Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE number of farmers who have registered to grow tobacco in the 2015/16 summer cropping season has declined by 24.9 percent to 57,492, official data shows.

According to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) weekly report ending October 23, a total of 76,545 growers had registered to grow the golden leaf during the same period last year.

“A total of 57,492 growers have registered for 2015/16 season as compared to 76,545 growers who had registered in a corresponding period in the prior year,” said TIMB.

The marketing board indicated that communal farmers contributed the highest registrations at 27,534 during the period under review.

As of October 22, a total of 20,961 A1 farmers had registered to grow the golden leaf while the A2 sector had recorded 4,584 farmers.

The small-scale sector has so far recorded 4,413 registered tobacco farmers for the 2015/16 cropping season.

TIMB said new registration for the 2015/16 was now at 9,983 compared to 15,278 last year in a similar period.

At present, tobacco is grown in seven provinces namely, Mashonaland West, Manicaland, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Midlands, Masvingo and Matabeleland.

However, Matabeleland which is known for cattle ranching is slowly venturing into tobacco farming.

The province has so far registered two tobacco growers for the 2015/16 summer cropping season while in the previous farming season it had seven registered growers.

Meanwhile, TIMB indicated that the 2015 seasonal exports have increased to 97.3 million kilogrammes compared to 88.7 million kg in a corresponding period last year.

The country has since the beginning of the year earned $499,2 million through tobacco exports while during the comparable period last year Zimbabwe raked in $472 million from 89 million kilogrammes.

Presently, Zimbabwe exports tobacco to more than 50 countries with China leading as the major consumer of the local flue cured tobacco.

Since January, the Asian country has spent $229,6 million on 28 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf from Zimbabwe.

Belgium, South Africa, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates were at present among the top five major consumers of Zimbabwean tobacco.