Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has licensed 32 contractors to buy leaf this season, reports The Herald.
The country’s tobacco auctions will open March 13, with the contract floors starting operations a day later.
To date, the regulator has licensed only two auction floors—the Tobacco Sales Floors and Premier Tobacco Auction Floor.
Contract sales will be conducted in Harare and at decentralized selling centers in Karoi, Mvurwi, Bindura, Marondera and Rusape.
TIMB Head of Operations Blessing Dhokotera reiterated that tobacco farmers would retain 75 percent of their proceeds in U.S. dollars and the remainder in local currency.
He also highlighted measures against child labor, side marketing and the spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19 and cholera.
Zimbabwe’s tobacco production has suffered from drought this years, with officials predicting a harvest of 265 million kg this year, compared with 294 million kg in 2023, according to News Day.
The droughts are attributed to the El Nino climate phenomenon which involves a periodic warming of ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, near the equator, and can have significant impacts on weather patterns worldwide.