Tag: marketing season

  • Zimbabwe Cigar Tobacco Marketing Season Opens

    Zimbabwe Cigar Tobacco Marketing Season Opens

    Image: Taco Tuinstra

    Zimbabwe’s 2024 cigar tobacco marketing season opened in Manicaland with a high price of $7.05 per kilogram recorded on the first sale, according to The Herald. The crop is in its 10th year of production.

    Growers have sold 5,200 kg of cigar tobacco worth $16,432 at an average price of $3.16 per kilogram, according to Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) statistics.

    “Growers comprised 11 small-scale growers all doing half a hectare each and one commercial farmer doing four hectares. The highest price fetched was $7.05 per kilogram,” said Chelesani Tsarwe, TIMB public affairs officer. Sales took place at Mapeto Farm in Burma Valley in the Manicaland province.

    “The first of the anticipated three sales saw 5,022 kg of the crop undergoing sale at an average price of $3.16 per kilogram. The crop was grown under contract with 14 small-scale farmers and one commercial grower,” said James Lindsay Guild, owner of Mapeto Farm. The crop was fermented at the farm for at least a year, according to Guild.

    “The premium tobacco from the crop is destined for the American cigar market. The average yield is around 1,500 kg per hectare,” Guild said.

    The small-scale farmers produced the crop under dryland, and the commercial farmer used irrigation.

  • Sales Reach $13 Million as Season Starts

    Sales Reach $13 Million as Season Starts

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Tobacco sales at Zimbabwe’s auction and contract floors has reached 1 million kg by day three of the marketing season. Farmers have earned $13 million so far, a 216 percent increase from the $4 million earned in the comparable period last year, according to The Herald.

    Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) statistics show that there has been a 167 percent increase in volume sales by day three at both auction and contract floors, from 1,555,090 kg to 4,148,403 kg.

    The average auction price is $3.15 per kilogram. Contract floors have recorded an average price of $3.11 per kilogram. The overall average price this year is $3.12 per kilogram, an 18 percent increase from the $2.63 per kilogram seen last year.

    This year, there was a 201 percent increase in total bales and a 62 percent decrease in bale rejection.

    The highest price seen on the auction floor was $4.99 per kilogram while the highest price on the contract floor was $6.50 per kilogram. The lowest price on both floors was $0.10 per kilogram.

    “The $4.99 per kilogram price ceiling has not yet been broken, and we have noticed a worrying trend where contract pricing seems not to make use of the prices determined on the auction to inform their pricing,” said George Seremwe, chairman of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association (ZTGA). “This discord needs to be addressed by having more tobacco on auction for competition.”

  • Zimbabwe Prepares for Marketing Season

    Zimbabwe Prepares for Marketing Season

    Image: Taco Tuinstra

    Zimbabwe’s tobacco growers are preparing for the 2024 marketing season, set to begin in March, reports Xinhua News.

    Farmers remain hopeful for a successful season despite unfavorable weather patterns that affected some crops—late onset of rains and severe hailstorms in some areas.

    This year’s projection is 250 million kg of tobacco due to the dry spell compared to last year’s record high of 296 million kg, according to Chelesani Tsarwe, public affairs officer of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB). By 2025, the government aims to increase production to 300 million kg per year.

    Tobacco auction floors will open March 13, according to the TIMB. Contract floors will open March 14. 

    Favorable pricing will be crucial for farmers to cover costs, especially for small-scale farmers, who make up over 80 percent of the country’s tobacco farmers, according to George Seremwe, president of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association.

    Tobacco is a major foreign currency earner in the country.

    “We think it will be very important for the government and the stakeholders to work on value addition, that is, value addition locally; with that, probably, we hope that the profits will also be shared among farmers,” said Seremwe.

  • Zimbabwe Farmers: Start 2024 Market Early

    Zimbabwe Farmers: Start 2024 Market Early

    Image: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Tobacco farmers in Zimbabwe have called for an early start to the 2024 marketing season to prevent potential storage losses, reports The Herald. The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has indicated that it is still going through farmers’ representations and still licensing buyers.

    Currently, 50 percent of the harvested irrigated tobacco is ready for marketing.

    The TIMB is consulting stakeholders on suggested dates for opening the 2024 marketing season, according to Chelesani Tsarwe, TIMB public affairs officer. The board is expected to meet at the end of January to deliberate on licensing buyers.

    “To ensure a good harvest, growers are encouraged to apply fertilizers correctly, undertake weed, disease, pest and sucker control,” said Tsarwe. “They must ensure they have good, functional and efficient curing facilities and safeguard proper handling of cured leaves to avoid losses.”

    “More than 50 percent of the irrigated crop has been harvested and cured, so as farmers, we have suggested that floors be opened from Feb. 15 going onward,” said George Seremwe, Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association chairman. “Another reason for this consideration is inadequate storage facilities for some of our farmers as well as the need to raise cash from the sale of a few bales to meet labor payments.”

    According to Seremwe, tobacco profitability is being compromised by high interest rates charged by loan sharks.

    “Farmer representatives have indicated that an early start to the season would help them clear loans, reduce borrowing incidences, reduce risks of storing graded tobacco on farms and generate foreign currency early to positively stimulate the market,” said Rodney Ambrose, Zimbabwe Tobacco Association CEO. “Farmer viability remains a major concern as costs of production continue to increase against static floor prices.”

    “We don’t want to open the market and stop due to inadequate volumes, so floors should open when there is a lot of tobacco ready for the market,” said Monica Chinamasa, Zimbabwe National Farmers Union president, who said the marketing season should open after Easter rather than earlier. “The price matrix is generated from the auction floors, so it’s critical to have large tobacco volumes in the auctions for effective price discovery.”

    “The government shifted [the] tobacco seedbed destruction date to Jan. 15 to allow planting to continue, and this should also result in dates of opening of floors set for early or mid-April,” said Victor Mariranyika, Tobacco Farmers Union Trust president, who is also in favor of a late start to the season.