Zambia’s crop expected to be reduced this season

Zambia is expected this season to produce a tobacco crop reduced from that of 2014/15, 27,000 tonnes, according to a story in The Times of Zambia.

Production is expected to be down significantly in the Eastern Province.

Eastern Fodya Association of Zambia chairperson Franklyn Mwale said in an interview with the Times that only 450 of the association’s 5,600 farmers had grown tobacco this season.

Mwale said that many farmers were shunning tobacco due to market uncertainties in the country. “The market for tobacco in Zambia is not certain,” he said. “A number of farmers have this year not grown the crop because they are not sure whether it will be bought or not.

“We had a situation last year where tobacco farmers were stranded with the crop due to lack of a market and farmers had difficulties in finding buyers.”

Mwale said that Eastern Province had been a major producer of tobacco in the country, producing more than 9,000 tonnes annually. The crop had for years remained a source of employment and income.

But lack of interest in the crop is not the only problem. Mwale said that the province was experiencing a poor rainfall pattern and that tobacco yields were expected to be low this year.