Category: Leaf

Voedsel Banned From Contracting Farmers

The TIMB headquarters in Harare
(Photo: Taco Tuinstra)
Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has banned Voedsel Tobacco International from contracting farmers this season after failing to pay farmers for two years, reports The Herald.
“Voedsel won’t be participating this year because they owe huge amounts of money to tobacco growers,” an unnamed official told The Herald.
Voedsel Director Tennyson Hwandi blamed “white-owned companies” for working against indigenous tobacco merchants.
“Big tobacco companies are being threatened by Black-owned tobacco companies, and Voedsel being one of the major players has been a target. They are determined to see us closing down,” he was quoted as saying, adding that Voedsel has already been giving its farmers inputs for the upcoming growing season.
A TIMB official said that if Voedsel was indeed issuing inputs, this would be illegal because the regulator had not licensed the company.
With buying facilities in tobacco-growing regions, including Rusape, Marondera and Karoi, Voedsel was among the major financiers of tobacco contract schemes.
Zimbabwe sold 212.7 million kg of tobacco at a value of USD650.3 million during the 2022 tobacco marketing season, compared with 211.1 million kg worth USD589.6 during the previous buying period.
November 8, 2022
Pakistan Leaf Exports Up Nearly 75 Percent

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Pakistan’s leaf tobacco exports jumped 74.66 percent during the first three months of fiscal year 2022–2023 as compared to the corresponding period of last year, reports the Daily Times, citing figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
During the quarter, the nation exported tobacco worth $13.8 million. In terms of volume, tobacco exports also rose by 93.35 percent from 3,096 metric tons to 5,986 metric tons, the data revealed.
Meanwhile, the year-on-year basis for tobacco export increased by 29.39 percent during September as compared to the same month of last year.
The tobacco exports in September 2022 were valued at $3.5 million against the export of $2.71 million in September 2021, the PBS data revealed.
On a month-on-month basis, leaf exports in September were down 34.96 percent from $5.381 million in August 2022.
November 7, 2022
Zimbabwe: More Than 12,500 Ha of Tobacco Planted

Photo: YanaKho
Zimbabwean tobacco growers have planted 2,107 ha of dryland tobacco to date this season, reports The Herald, citing data from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).
According to TIMB spokesperson Chelesani Tsarwe, 133,724 farmers have registered to grow tobacco this season compared to 111,063 during the same period last year.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union President Shadreck Makombe told The Herald that tobacco planting was progressing well.
“Dry land tobacco farmers have started planting especially in those areas where the rains fell,” he said. “We will see planting activities intensifying, especially as we go forward from next week onward.”
The area put under irrigated tobacco was 10,483 ha as of Nov. 1, bringing the total hectarage under tobacco to 12,590 ha.
Despite efforts to diversify into other products, tobacco remains one of Zimbabwe’s greatest generators of foreign currency.
During the 2022 tobacco marketing season, Zimbabwe earned USD650 million from tobacco sales, up from USD589 million the previous year.
November 4, 2022
Zimbabwe: Tobacco Sales Hit $650 Million

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Zimbabwe earned $650 million during the 2022 tobacco marketing season, which closed Oct. 21, reports All Africa. The figure was up from $589 million last year.
In a statement announcing the end of the 2022 tobacco marketing season, the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) expressed delight with improved sales volumes and deliveries to auction floors.
The value of sales was up 10.3 percent over last year while volume increased 0.75 percent, according to the regulatory body.
As of Oct. 21, 2022, a total of 212,711,370 kg of tobacco had been sold compared with 211,100,219 kg sold during the same period in 2021.
“The increase in tobacco sold as well as the value is evidence of our efforts as an industry to establish a $5 billion industry by 2025,” said the TIMB.
October 31, 2022
Karnataka Gears up for Selling Season

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Karnataka will start auctioning its flue-cured Virginia tobacco crop in October 2022, the Tobacco Board of India announced.
The board expects a crop of approximately 64 million kg of good quality with a comparatively high share of bright grades.
In a letter to customers, the Tobacco Board said it is promoting various sustainable tobacco production practices, including the promotion of integrated pest management, natural farming practices, NTRM-free tobacco production, fuel conservation measures and tree planting programs to ensure product integrity and compliance with buyer requirements.
The Tobacco Board urged leaf buyers to communicate their requirements well in advance.
“I would request you to plan your requirements for the 2022–23 Karnataka crop well in advance for timely liquidation of the produce and early conclusion of auction sales, thereby avoiding leaf quality deterioration as well as weight loss, which could be beneficial to the farmers as well as the traders,” wrote Tobacco Board Executive Director A. Sridhar Babu.
October 9, 2022
CRP to Build $80 million Plant in Harare

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Cut Rag Processors plans to build an $80 million cigarette factory in Harare, Zimbabwe, reports The Sunday Mail, citing sources familiar with the project.
The company, which is one of the country’s largest exporters of cut rag and manufactures the Remington Gold cigarette brand, has already started clearing 60,000 square meters of land in the Lochinvar industrial area.
The factory will have both a primary department for the production of cut rag and a secondary department for the manufacture of cigarettes, an unnamed source told The Sunday Mail.
While confirming the construction of the new facility, Cut Rag Processors Managing Director Nyasha Chinhara declined to provide details, citing “finalization of confidential internal processes.”
The project fits with Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, which aims to extract more value from the tobacco business.
The world’s sixth largest producer of leaf tobacco, Zimbabwe currently captures only a fraction of the trade’s value. The government aims to unlock $5 billion in export revenue by 2025.
Net foreign currency inflows from tobacco stood at $45.7 million in 2020. About 98 percent of tobacco produced in Zimbabwe is exported in green (semi-processed) form by big tobacco merchants.
Zimbabwe has three processing facilities owned by Zimbabwe Leaf Tobacco, Tobacco Processors Zimbabwe and Mashonaland Tobacco Co.
Cut Rag Processors was formed in February 2000 as the first independent cut rag production facility in Zimbabwe servicing both the domestic and export markets.
The establishment of the company paved the way for the merger of BAT and Rothmans in 2000. Previously, the Competition and Tariff Commission had rejected the merger out of concern that the merged entity would create a monopoly.
Between 2012 and 2014, Cut Rag Processors closed its cigarette line. A year later, the company decided to exit the entire tobacco business. It returned to production after its owner, Gold Leaf, sold the business to new shareholders in 2019.
Encouraged by the government’s plan to boost Zimbabwe’s tobacco earnings, the new investor injected capital into the manufacturing business.
October 9, 2022
Cuba Plots Tobacco Course Post-Hurricane

Photo: Sabino Parente
Tabacuba Business Group of Cuba is drawing up new strategies for tobacco output in the 2022–2023 harvest following the destruction of Hurricane Ian, reports Prensa Latina.
Marino Murillo, president of Tabacuba, considered the Pinar del Rio province as decisive in the effort.
All tobacco that was protected in natural curing houses and warehouses will be collected; 33,000 tons of the existing 41,000 tons are in this province, which reported 80 percent infrastructure destruction.
Anywhere from 15,000 tons to 17,000 tons of tobacco will be taken to other provinces, and seedbed irrigation will be immediately resumed.
Warehouses and natural curing houses that are in good condition will be stripped of available materials because the country is deficient in wood, according to Murillo.
Tobacco growers in Pinar del Rio kept 650 tons of covered tobacco from being damaged with their early actions before the hurricane.
According to Murillo, Cuba is still planning on planting tobacco, which covers 15,000 ha nationwide, but the area to be used in Pinar del Rio has not yet been defined and will depend on possible curing houses that can be rebuilt.
October 8, 2022
Zimbabwe: Record Tobacco Area Expected

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Industry representatives expect Zimbabwe’s tobacco farmers to plant a record hectarage of leaf this season as sales of seed soar, reports The Herald.
As of Sept. 2, 2022, at least 925 kg of tobacco seed with the capacity to cover 184,999 ha was sold, according to the Tobacco Research Board. This would be the largest hectarage ever planted if all the seed sold is sown.
Planting of irrigated tobacco began on Sept. 1, 2022, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB). The TIMB stated that it has designed a monitoring system for contractors’ compliance to help relieve farmers’ anxiety over contract farming agreements.
“As the 2022/2023 season commences, TIMB is working toward standardizing the inputs package offered by contractors to growers,” said Chelesani Moyo, TIMB public relations officer.
“We have come up with a compliance administration framework that every registered contractor should meet. This stipulates the minimum inputs package for both small[-scale] and large-scale growers. The conditions also include the last date for inputs distribution for those who are contracted.”
“The pricing of tobacco being determined at the auction floors through a transparent system is justified as the grower is protected from any unfair pricing by the contractor who stands guided by the previous day grade price matrix obtained from the auction floors,” Moyo added.
September 7, 2022
Volumes Down, Prices up in Southern Brazil

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Tobacco growers in southern Brazil produced 560.18 million kg in 2021–2022, 10.9 percent less than in the previous growing season, reports Kohltrade, citing figures released by the Brazilian Tobacco Growers Association, Afubra, on Sept. 5.
Production included 512.59 million kg of flue-cured Virginia, 41.79 million kg of burley and 5.79 million kg of Galpao Comum, a native tobacco variety.
The area planted with tobacco in southern Brazil decreased by 8.8 percent year-on-year to 246,590 ha in 2021–2022.
While the leaf volume was down, the average price paid to tobacco growers in southern Brazil grew by 61.5 percent to BRL17.02 ($3.25) per kg this year.
The average price was BRL17.26 per kg in Rio Grande do Sul, BRL17.19 per kg in Santa Catarina and BRL16.41 per kg in Parana.
Industry representatives expect the southern Brazil region to cultivate a slightly larger tobacco area for the 2022–2023 crop.
The production estimate will be completed by the end of October.
September 6, 2022
Zambia Expects $92 Million From Tobacco

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Zambia expects to increase its tobacco harvest by a quarter and generate $92 million from leaf sales at the close of the marketing season in September, reports Farmers Review Africa.
By Aug. 12, the country’s tobacco growers had sold 35 million kg of leaf through the approval sales floors against projected sales of 33 million kg. Flue-cured Virginia accounted for 27 million kg and burley represented 6 million kg of the leaf sales.
Agriculture Minister Reuben Mtolo told the International Tobacco Growers Association’s Africa Congress in Lusaka on Aug. 24 that the sector had performed well during the season despite various headwinds coupled with low investment.
He said the government is committed to creating an investment-friendly environment.
“The government is now in the process of enacting a new legal framework for the industry that will bring about effective regulation and foresee improved private stakeholder participation across the tobacco value chain,” said Mtolo.
Zambia’s eighth national development plan emphasizes crop diversification and increasing profitability among all actors within the value chain.
August 25, 2022