Golden Sibanda

Zimbabwe is this year projecting to register a “slight” decline in tobacco output due to the late onset of the rainy season and a drought spell experienced in December.

Tobacco, which employees more than 60 percent of the agricultural workforce, earns the country about US$1 billion annually.

It is also estimated the golden leaf contributes about 11 percent of Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive officer Dr Andrew Matibiri told The Sunday Mail Business in an interview last week that the dip in production was expected largely due to the effect of late rains last year.

“In terms of tobacco hectarage out there it is slightly less than what we had last year (2018-2019 season). Output will definitely be less than last year,” Dr Matibiri said, adding”: “It (production) will be down by more than 20 percent.”

However, he said improved rains from late December last year onwards saw tobacco — being a drought tolerant crop — recover. He lamented this year’s deliveries would fall short of the record levels achieved in the last two seasons.

Last year, deliveries of the golden leaf topped 258 million kg, after bettering another previous high of 252 million kg achieved in 2018.

“The crop suffered very much. It was planted and then (conditions were) very dry and the rains came very late,” he said. “Fortunately, tobacco being what it is, it recovered very well. It looks like we will get something almost near full potential.

“What you must remember is that farmers planted in October, November and so some of the seedlings that they planted dried up in the scorching heat. You must also remember that the previous season was dry and most farmers did not have water for establishing seedbeds, let alone for planting tobacco,” Dr Matibiri said.

He added the quality of the early harvested crop, which comprises mainly of the bottom leaves, would be very low, but the upper leaves were expected to be much better because the conditions eventually became perfect for leaf expansion.

However, Dr Matibiri said he expected tobacco prices to be far much better this marketing season after monetary issues were resolved. The reintroduction of the Zimbabwe dollar and conversion from US dollar at 1:1 had suppressed prices according to Dr Matibiri.

He said the conversion of all bank balances to local currency at 1:1 with the US dollar resulted in most buyers offering very low prices compared to the prior season.But after resolution of the issues by authorities and the introduction of an interbank forex market, which provides for conversion of foreign currency at the ruling bank rate, prices were expected to improve this year.

The tobacco marketing season is this year expected to start a little late, approximately a month from now or end of April, on account of changing rainfall  pattterns.

TIMB said the irrigated crop for this year was fair to good, being lemon to orange in colour. The average yield expected is 2 347 kilogrammes per hectare. Main dryland crop is mostly lemon in colour, and average yield expected is 1 981kg per hectare.

TIMB said harvesting of the crop had commenced in fast-growing areas. The bulk of the crop was grown by A1 communal farmers and expected yield was 1 003kg per hectare.

The tobacco industry regulator said while harvesting had started, workers were demanding cash, resulting in leaf loss due to unavailability of labour. Power cuts are affecting the curing processes and irrigation rescheduling.

“Fuel shortage is severely affecting reaping of tobacco as some ripe leaves are left in the field because farmers do not have fuel to ferry the tobacco to the curing barns. Some smallholder farmers are failing to secure fuel for curing tobacco,” TIMB said.

The regulator said skyrocketing production costs had also forced some farmers to abandon standard agronomic practices.

Latest official figures show that non-contracted growers were the most affected after registered growers declined 55 percent to 20 969 while contracted growers grew marginally, rising 3 percent to 126 949.