Zimbabwe Keen to Move up the Value Chain

The Zimbabwe government has put in place modalities to ensure value addition for tobacco before export, reports the Zimbabwe Independent.

The government plans to reach its USD5 billion tobacco industry goal by 2025 through beneficiation of the crop, according to Anxious Masuka, minister of lands, agriculture, water and rural resettlement.

“What we want to do is to ensure that there is more value addition and beneficiation of tobacco. We export 98 percent of our tobacco in raw form, thereby exporting jobs and value. It is estimated that we produce more than 200 million kilograms of tobacco, and as it crosses the border, the same tobacco fetches USD15 billion, and we only get USD1 billion,” Masuka said.

“Our tobacco is worth billions on the international market, but as Zimbabwe, we only get USD1 billion. So the government has now put in place the transformation plan to ensure that we increase the volume and also value add so that by 2025 we can have a USD5 billion industry.”

In 2022, Zimbabwe earned USD650 million, up from USD589 million in 2021.