Tanzania President Lays First Stone for Factory

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Aug. 6 laid the foundation stone for a $300 million cigarette factory in Morogoro, reports The Citizen.

The Serengeti Cigarette Co. factory will supplement the recently reopened Mkwawa leaf-processing facility, which is in the process of expanding its annual capacity from 80 million kg to 200 million kg. Upon completion, the factory will be the world’s second-largest leaf-processing facility, according to Minister of Agriculture Hussein Bashe.

During the previous administration, the Mkwawa plant ceased operations due to financial and regulatory challenges, including fines totaling TZS2 trillion ($740.66 million) imposed by The Fair Competition Commission and the Tanzania Revenue Authority.

When President Hasan’s government took office in March 2021, it annulled the fines as part of a program to revive and expand Tanzania’s tobacco business.

According to Bashe, these actions allowed tobacco production to increase from 65 million kg in 2021 to 122 million kg in the most recent growing season, catapulting Tanzania to the No. 2 position among tobacco producers in Africa, after Zimbabwe.  

The ready market also boosted prices from $1.40 per kilogram three years ago to $2.40 during the just-completed season, said Bashe. Tanzania earned $400 million from tobacco exports this year.

Upon completion, the new cigarette factory will employ 12,000 permanent and seasonal positions and generate additional demand for local leaf.

Keen to reduce the environmental impact of tobacco production, Mkwawa has been encouraging farmers to dry their tobacco in the sun rather than in wood-fueled curing barns. The company aims to have at least 30 percent of its contracted farmers cure their tobacco this way.