Zambia’s leaf marketing season extended

The Tobacco Board of Zambia (TBZ) has moved the end of this year’s leaf tobacco marketing season from September 30 to October 31 so as to enable the sale of so-far unsold tobacco, according to a story in the Zambia Daily Mail.

Last month, non-contracted tobacco farmers appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock to help find buyers for their crops.

According to the TBZ, a ‘lot’ of unsold tobacco is still on the auction floors or is still held by farmers.

Recently, non-contracted tobacco growers said that 90 percent of the crop in Zambia was grown under contract, which made it difficult for non-contracted farmers to find a market for their tobacco.

In part, the difficulties faced by non-contracted growers are said to be caused by demands by processors for full traceability of tobacco.

The Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Given Lubinda has constituted a committee chaired by his deputy Greyford Moonde to come up with proposals on how the government should deal with tobacco not covered by contracts.