Leaf tobacco prices way down – again – in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s flue-cured tobacco growers sold 775,997 kg of leaf at an average price of US$1.55 per kg during the first three days of the marketing season that opened on March 4, according to a Newsday Zimbabwe story citing figures from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).

During the corresponding period of the previous marketing season, 940,864 kg was sold at an average price of US$2.41 per kg.

The TIMB attributed the volume decline to delayed rains that hit production, and to growers withholding their crop in the face of low prices, which were down by nearly 36 percent on those of the previous season.

And the previous marketing season was not a good one for growers. A Zimbabwe Standard story in March 2014 quoted growers as describing prices as ‘low by any standards’ and ‘daylight robbery’. A Zimbabwe Herald story, also published in March 2014, said that seasonal average prices were so far 29.7 per cent lower than those of 2013.

Growers are no doubt finding it difficult to come to terms with successive price decreases of 29.7 percent and 36 percent, given that the prices of cigarettes don’t seem to be going down.