Leaf price up 3¢ per kg

The average grower price paid for Zimbabwe’s flue-cured tobacco is so far running at US$0.03 per kg ahead of that paid during the previous season.

Figures issued by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) show that, so far this season, growers have sold 182.3 million kg of flue-cured tobacco for US$540.9 million, according to a story in the Zimbabwe Chronicle relayed by the TMA.

At the same stage of the previous season, growers had sold 196.6 million kg for US$578.5 million.

Zimbabwe’s sales season is drawing to a close with the expectation that 206 million kg of flue-cured will have been sold by the time it ends.

The country’s tobacco growers sold 201 million kg in 2016.

Early last month, the TIMB reduced the number of selling days to two – on Tuesdays and Thursdays – and later in the month it reduced them to once a week, on Wednesdays.

In a statement towards the end of July, the TIMB board said final clean-up sales would be held on August 11.