Source: Zim tobacco output hit all-time high – DailyNews Live

Farayi Machamire      4 July 2018

HARARE – Eighteen years after the collapse of Zimbabwe’s agriculture
sector in the wake of former President Robert Mugabe’s land grab
programme, tobacco production has hit a record 207 million kg, with black
farmers funded by private firms producing the highest volume ever produced
in the post-land reform era.

From 5 000 mostly white farmers in 2000, there are now over 100 000 blacks
growing tobacco, with sales shooting up 29 percent from 161 million kg  to
207m kg, while the total value of the crop increased 29 percent to $605,8
million from $470 million realised in the previous comparable period.

This comes as Zimbabwe is now Africa’s biggest tobacco producer,
accounting for the biggest chunk of continent wide cigarette production.
Zimbabwe itself consumes less than 5 percent of its tobacco output.

Tobacco, the country’s biggest exporter earner, has taken pole position in
Africa buoyed by the surge in the number of farmers who have embraced
cash-crop farming in the wake of the land reform programme.

According to the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, the tobacco industry is
again booming. “Output reached nearly 180 million kg last year and the
country had targeted to produce 200 million kilogrammes in 2018.

“We could reach between 220 million and 225 million kg as we expect
contract sales to continue up to September,” Zimbabwe Tobacco Association
CEO Rodney Ambrose told Farmers Voice.

Sales through the auction system have, however, slowed, he said. At peak,
Zimbabwe produced 236 million kg in 1999 when government embarked on land
reform to redistribute the finite resource from a few white farmers to the
black majority.