Zimbabwe eyes big tobacco crop as black farmers cash in
(AFP) – 4 hours ago
HARARE — Zimbabwe expects tobacco revenue to increase by 16 percent this
year as new landowning black farmers turn to the valuable export crop, an
industry official said on Wednesday.
“We are expecting the total deliveries to reach 170 million kilograms or
more and earnings of around $600 million,” Monica Chinamasa, chairperson of
the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board told AFP.
That would be up from just over 140 million kilos last year, worth around
$517 million, according to the board.
Zimbabwe was once the world’s biggest tobacco exporter, with sales
accounting for 30 percent of exports.
But the seizure of white-owned farms by Robert Mugabe’s government resulted
in a steep drop off in production.
The number of registered tobacco growers has almost doubled in the last year
to 66,000.
More than 80 percent of the new tobacco farmers are beneficiaries of
President Robert Mugabe’s land reforms, she said.
The Zimbabwean government has urged banks to support fledgling tobacco
farmers, who have no access to bank loans because they do not have
collateral.
“Most of these farmers are using meagre resources to start production and I
believe if the financial services sector were to open up we would see this
sector develop,” Kasukuwere said.
Production has been rising since 2009, though it remains off a peak in 2000
of 236 million kilos.
Production fell to a low point of 56 million kilos in 2006, the weakest
performance since independence from Britain in 1980.
The sudden collapse of commercial farming caused by the land reforms sent
Zimbabwe’s already wobbly economy into a tailspin, leading to world-record
hyperinflation.
After the government abolished the Zimbabwe dollar and made the US dollar
its currency of reference, farm production stabilised and began ticking
upward.
Tobacco remains Zimbabwe’s biggest agricultural export, though mining has
overtaken farming as the main foreign currency earner.