Zimbabwe Leaf Sales Touch $900 Million

Zimbabwe has earned nearly $900 million from tobacco sales this season, reports New Zimbabwe, citing a government statement dated Aug. 21.

“Cabinet is pleased to advise that the total tobacco production now stands at a phenomenal 295,499,782 kg, valued at $895,114,791,” said Lands and Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka.

“Of special note is the fact that 52 percent of the total production came from A1 and A2 farmers, confirming that the land reform program has been a success,” he said.

In the early 2000s, Zimbabwe confiscated large-scale and mostly white-owned tobacco farms and redistributed them among landless peasants.

The tobacco crop grew despite increased fertilizer prices caused by the war in Ukraine.  

Tobacco in Zimbabwe has been on a rebound after production plummeted from a high of about 240 million kg  in 1998 to less than 50 million kg a decade later.

Through the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, the southern African country has been working to make its tobacco industry more lucrative by manufacturing more cigarettes at home and limiting foreign funding of farmers.