Zimbabwe - Tobacco Reporter

Zimbabwe: Farmers Urged to Clear Fields

Tobacco growers who failed to clear their fields of residue from the previous crop by the May 15 deadline will face stiff penalties, Zimbabwe’s Kutsaga Research warned.

To break the life cycles of tobacco pests and pathogens, along with incidental infestations such as mealybugs and false wireworms, Zimbabwean law requires growers to clear their fields of all stalks from the previous crop before they prepare their seedbeds for the next growing season, according to The Herald.

The Plant Pests and Diseases Act requires this to be done by May 15 of every year. This year, seedbed preparations may start no earlier than June 1 while planting should not commence before Sept. 1.

Officials from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, Agritex and Plant Quarantine Services will be carrying out routine inspections of growers’ fields to ensure compliance, Kutsaga Research said in a notice.

“It is every tobacco grower’s responsibility to be proactive and ensure good agricultural practices and efficient use of aphicides as we enter the news season in order to slow down proliferation of aphids so as to minimize all viral transmissions,” the organization wrote.

Violators risk fines equivalent to US$100 per hectare.

May 16, 2024

Officers Told to Stop Demanding Kickbacks

Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has told field officers to stop demanding kickbacks from tobacco growers and transporters, reports The Herald.

According to the newspaper, some field officers are forcing farmers to use only vehicles owned by certain individuals, with some demanding up to $3 per bale for this “service.”

The Tobacco Transporters Trust of Zimbabwe (TTTZ) is reportedly compiling a list of the culprits.

“Lat year, the officers were demanding $1 per bale,” TTTZ Chairperson Rutendo Sande was quoted as saying. “We lodged complaints but no action was taken.”

May 11, 2024

Zimbabwean Shisha Crop Selling Rapidly

Growers of shisha tobacco in Zimbabwe sold more than a third of their crop within four days, reports The Herald, citing figures from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).

The farmers pocketed $660,000, earning an average price of $3.62 per kilogram. Out of 2,385 bales presented, 162 bales, or 6.79 percent, were rejected by buyers. The current average price is 15 percent higher than the 2023 season average.

Nonetheless, the figures make shisha tobacco less profitable for growers than flue-cured tobacco, according to Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association Chairman George Seremwe, although he acknowledges that producing shisha leaf is less capital intensive.

While shisha is a type of flue-cured tobacco, it is derived from imported seeds and produced using different agronomic practices. To obtain the desired low nicotine levels, the tobacco fields are planted much more densely than is typical with cigarette tobaccos, ensuring fierce competition among the plants for nutrients.

Cavendish Lloyd is the only shisha leaf merchant registered and licensed with the TIMB. Tobacco Reporter profiled the company in its May 2022 print edition (see “Great Expectations”).

May 8, 2024

Zim Growers Warned Against ‘Nesting’

Farmers caught “nesting” their bales—sneaking nontobacco-related material (NTRM) into tobacco bales to increase bale weight or concealing bad tobacco under good-quality leaf to deceive buyers—can expect serious repercussions, reports The Herald, citing a social media post by Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) warned.

Cases of tobacco nesting have been increasing, according to the regulator.

“Warning! Tobacco nesting is a serious crime, desist from it. This can result in arrest, hefty fines, criminal prosecution and grower deactivation,” the TIMB posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Nested tobacco is forfeited to the TIMB, and grower numbers required to participate in sales are blocked. Offending farmers must pay a fine of $30 per violation.

“As TIMB, we are conducting training and awareness campaigns to discourage the sale of nested tobacco. Nesting is an offense that incurs a fine and results in the loss of tobacco,” said Chelesani Tsarwe, TIMB public affairs officer.

The TIMB is also working to curb side marketing and to create a transporter compliance framework.

“In this regard, losses are minimized, thereby increasing farmer profitability and viability for improved livelihoods by 2025,” said Blessing Dhokotera, TIMB head of operations. “The framework seeks to counter criminal activities like side marketing, tobacco bale theft, bale swapping and forgery on stop order launching.”

The TIMB also urged farmers to avoid plastic materials in packing or storing tobacco as they contaminate the tobacco leaf.

April 29, 2024

Leaf Earnings up in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean tobacco growers had earned $143 million from the sale of 41 million kg of flue-cured tobacco by Day 17 of this year’s marketing season—nearly 50 percent more than they pocketed after the same number of selling days last year, reports The Herald.

Contract floors accounted for 94 percent of the tobacco volumes after taking delivery of 38,432,613 kg while their auction counterparts stood at 6 percent with 2,583,334 kg, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).

Farmers earned $9.25 million and $134 million under the auction and contract system respectively. The average auction price surged 16 percent from $3.09 per kilogram on Day 1 to $3.58 by Day 17 while contract floors, which opened one day after the auctions, rose 13 percent, from $3.09 by Day 2 to $3.49 by Day 17.

The number of bale rejections was 38 percent lower than during the comparable 2023 period, a development that the TIMB attributes to the training of farmers on grading, presentation and bale handling, among other skills.

Despite the increases, some farmers expressed dissatisfaction with the current average price, which they believe should be higher, as supply is curtailed due to the El Nino drought.

In Brazil, the industry has been paying record prices due to a lower-than-expected Virginia tobacco harvest. According to the growers’ association Afubra, the average per-kilo price in Brazil was up by nearly 20 percent over that paid during the 2022-2023 marketing season.

April 10, 2024

Zimbabwe Seed Producer Shuts Down

Zimbabwe Tobacco Seed Association (ZTSA) has stopped production and is closing down after failing to secure parent seed, reports NewsDay. The company expressed fears that this will affect the billon-dollar tobacco leaf sector.

“We have not had the chance to get parent seed for the past six years, and it pushed us out of business,” said Mildred Kamusasa, ZTSA executive committee chairperson. “We had over 400 workers as part of the seed production company. Sadly, the company is not relocating, but we are shutting down operations and liquidating.

“There is no hope that we can come back into play any time soon.”

“While the closure of ZTSA is disheartening, rest assured that the supply of tobacco seed will continue without any compromise,” said Tatenda Mugabe, public relations and communications officer at Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Research Board.

April 8, 2024

Zimbabwe Aims for $60 Billion Tobacco Industry

Zimbabwe plans to create a $60 billion tobacco industry by 2028, according to The Herald.

The government is currently working to increase processing and value addition of tobacco from 2 percent to more than 30 percent to boost earnings.

Zimbabwe currently earns about $1 billion from its annual tobacco exports, which is 6 percent of the global market.

“In terms of the value transformation strategy, we must tap into the value of our tobacco,” said Obert Jiri, permanent secretary for Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, noting that the tobacco produced is worth over $60 billion when fully processed across the value chain.

“We understand that most of our tobacco is exported, and the strategy is to tap into that value chain. We are happy that some are doing cigars, some little value addition in terms of cigarette production. The strategy we have as a government is really to ensure that we encourage investments in proper value addition so that we don’t export our raw materials.”

According to Kutsaga CEO Frank Magama, the board is breeding tobacco seeds for international markets. “We have trials that are happening in Italy, Brazil, China, and our varieties are also grown in China. The direction that we take from the government, in terms of breeding, is that we must make sure that we have quality products. We excel in tobacco, so our products are now found in the region where we are able to earn foreign currency for the country,” he said.

The Kutsaga Tobacco Research Board recently introduced climate-smart tobacco varieties, enabling farmers to continuously have good harvests despite climate change and new pathogens.

Zimbabwe’s plans are part of the government’s ambitious Tobacco Value Chain Transformation plan.

April 1, 2024

Harare to Hosts First WT Africa Conference

Zimbabwe will host Africa’s first World Tobacco Africa Conference and Expo May 15–16, reports The Sunday Mail. The conference is set to host over 2,000 senior tobacco professionals from across Africa.

The conference is organized by Quartz Business Events and held in partnership with the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).

The event’s theme is “From Seed to Success: A New Era for African Leaf Tobacco.” The conference will serve as a platform for industry leaders to share knowledge, address challenges and discover innovative solutions to ensure the continued prosperity of the African tobacco industry, according to The Sunday Mail.

“Zimbabwe has been afforded the opportunity to host the first-ever World Tobacco Africa Expo, and this will be an opportune time for the country to showcase a new business platform for the African leaf tobacco industry,” said Tapiwa Chimedza, TIMB head of business development. “As the host country, we will create a platform for discussion on a new era for African leaf tobacco.”

“At least 2,000 senior and key professionals will take part in the program, which is a huge resource to tap from,” he said.

“Hosting such a global event here in Harare brings with it more opportunities for our country,” he added.

“The enthusiasm and the wealth of ideas shared with associations, merchants and growing groups alike have solidified our conviction that the inaugural World Tobacco Africa Conference is poised for great success,” said Tony Crinion, Quartz Business Events managing director, after a tour of local manufacturers and industry stakeholders in Harare.

Zimbabwe is Africa’s largest tobacco producer, followed by Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique.

For more information about the WT Africa conference, click here.

April 1, 2024

Zimbabwe: Auction Prices Hit Record High

Tobacco prices on Zimbabwe’s auction floors hit a record high of $5.05 per kilogram, the highest price in 10 years. The previous high was $4.99 per kilogram.

The increase comes primarily from “freed-funded” tobacco, which is grown by individual farmers and accounts for 7 percent of the total crop, according to The Herald.

The remainder of the tobacco crop is funded under contract schemes that are mainly sponsored by foreign companies.

Auction prices have increased 26 percent year-over-year while contract prices have increased 13 percent, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board. The auction floor price increase has reignited calls for an increase in local financing for tobacco growing.

“The continued reliance on contract farming after two decades suggests there might be deeper issues with the model itself,” said Tobias Musara, a Harare-based development economist. “Ideally, a few seasons of participation should equip the farmers for self-sufficiency. This dependence on contract financing needs to be addressed to ensure long-term benefits for our local farmers.”

Contract farming began around 2004, a few years after the government confiscated commercial farms and distributed the land among smallholder growers.

March 28, 2024

Zim Growers Worried About Price Fixing

Tobacco growers in Zimbabwe have voiced concern over tobacco leaf prices at the auction floors, which have capped out at $4.99 per kilogram compared to around $6 per kilogram on the contract floors, reports NewsDay. Growers are worried about buyer collusion.

“The season is progressing reasonably well, even though we have raised concern about the $4.99 cap, which is on the auction system, and for us, it’s a kind of a sign of collusion, which is worrisome,” Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association President George Seremwe said. “We cannot have the auction system offering lower prices than the contract.”

“The contract has gone up to $6.90, and for us, there is a discord,” Seremwe said. “The same buyers who are buying at the auction are the same buyers who are also buying at the contract.

“So that’s why we suspect there’s collusion. We would want the prices to go up because if you look at the production cost, it was quite high.”

Tobacco growing will not be sustainable for the farmers due to poor auction floor prices, according to Seremwe. “So, the growth of tobacco has to be attractive by the prices. We know the price world over has gone up, so we also expect the prices to go up than what is currently prevailing on the market,” he said.

“We talk of sustainability of the farmer. As farmers, we think it is not sustainable at the moment.”

Farmers expected the prices to be better compared to last year, said Shadreck Makombe, president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union. “The prices are not yet at what we would have expected,” Makombe said. “We would have expected a few coins up.”

“Again, it’s the only start of the marketing season, [and] most of the tobacco being sold there is primary leaf tobacco, not quite what we want,” he said. “We expect the prices to firm up or to increase for the farmers to get anything meaningful from their crop.”

March 25, 2024

Tag: Zimbabwe