Tag: Zimbabwe

  • Zimbabwe Leaf Sales Reach $721 Million

    Zimbabwe Leaf Sales Reach $721 Million

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    So far this marketing season, Zimbabwe’s tobacco farmers have brought in $721 million from the tobacco auction and contract floors, down from $832 million in the same period last year, reports The Herald.

    This year, 208 million kilograms have been delivered to the marketing floors so far compared to 275 million kilograms last year. The target this year is 265 million kilograms, which is lower than last year’s target; however, this year’s crop was affected by El Nino induced drought.

    The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board noted that 11.7 million kilograms have been delivered to auction floors and 197 million kilograms have been delivered to contract floors. The average price is $3.45 with the highest price at $6.99. Fewer bales have been rejected this year compared to last year.

  • 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.

  • Farmers Want Improved Local Funding

    Farmers Want Improved Local Funding

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Tobacco farmers in Zimbabwe have called on the government to improve local funding of the country’s leaf production to ensure that farmers are receiving maximum benefits from their crops, reports The Herald.

    Tobacco farming is financed mainly through offshore funding; 95 percent of farmers work under contract, and 5 percent are self-financed.

    Zimbabwe only retains about 12.5 percent of its tobacco value as the remainder goes toward paying back loans and interest from offshore financiers.

    According to George Seremwe, chairman of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association, production costs have increased, and local banks cannot finance farmers.

    “We are not happy with the current model of contract farming because these merchants are not for the benefit of most of us, so we would like to change that. We are not happy with the current contract system because we are not getting any benefit from anything as farmers. Actually, we are getting poorer.

    “We have to raise local funding. As farmers, we are going to look at ways of how we are going to raise capital. We can raise funding to be able to support ourselves. Foreign funding is costly, and it has restrictions on it, and it is not benefiting us at all. Let us rectify this because our government is the one which controls the financial institutions.”

    “We have over 30 percent of farmers who are doing side marketing because these offshore beneficiaries entice them,” said Edward Dune, vice president of the Tobacco Farmers Union Trust. “We are very aware of these surrogate players in the industry, but as farmers, we are very much in support of local funding. As farmers, we need good agronomic practices to put in place so that we get maximum benefits out of it.”

  • Leaf Sales Down

    Leaf Sales Down

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Contracted and self-financing growers had earned more than US$600 million by Day 56 of Zimbabwe’s 2024 tobacco selling season, down from $722 million earned by the same day last year, reports The Herald.

    The most recent season was impacted by an El Nino-induced drought, which caused the season to start late and end early.

    Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board statistics revealed that farmers had cumulatively sold 173.76 million kilograms of tobacco worth $607.08 million by Day 56 under both the auction and contract systems. This represents a 16 percent decline in earnings from the comparable 2023 period.

     In volume terms, the leaf sold was 27 percent below the 239.56 million kg sold last season. The average auction price was $0.12 higher than that at the contract floors.

    Some stakeholders remained positive about the remainder of the season. “On the back of an El Niño-ravaged season, we need to celebrate the 174 million kilograms achieved to date,” said Paul Zakariya, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union. “The marketing season is still underway and we expect more tobacco to come through. We may not necessarily reach the desired target, but we will not totally be out of range .”

    Others were less optimistic. Tobacco Farmers Union Trust Vice President Edward Dune said it was highly unlikely that the 240 million kilogram target would be reached in the wake of the drought.

    “Deliveries should definitely be declining now that the marketing season is almost coming to an end. Firewood cutting and nursery preparations are the major farmer activities currently taking place on farms,” he said.

  • Investor Plans Nicotine Extraction in Zimbabwe

    Investor Plans Nicotine Extraction in Zimbabwe

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    A Chinese investor plans to build a multi-billion dollar nicotine-extraction factory in Zimbabwe, reports The Herald. The plans are at an advanced stage, according to the country’s former ambassador to China, Christopher Mutsvangwa.

    The facility will extract nicotine from tobacco stalks, leaves and flowers for the cigarette alternatives, such as e-cigarettes. Once established the factory is expected to also process tobacco from neighboring countries including Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.

    “There is going to be a very big industry to extract nicotine from the by-products after selecting the premium tobacco leaves,” Mutsvangwa told participants in meeting of the ruling  Zanu PF’s party’s Mashonaland West provincial coordinating committee in Chinhoyi.

    “The Chinese firms have an interest in setting up the factories here in Zimbabwe because of our production levels,” he said.

    The investor’s board of directors reportedly met on May 31, 2024, to finalize the modalities of setting up the factory, which will likely be built in Karoi, in one of Zimbabwe’s largest tobacco producing districts.

    Zimbabwe is also expected to be a major producer of cannabis seeds following plans to establish a US$400 million factory. “We now have capacity to produce cannabis seed in the country. After an initial investment of $30 million, the company now wants to set up a seed production factory,” said Mutsvangwa.

    The investments in nicotine extraction and cannabis production will boost Zimbabwe’s attempts to extract more value from its tobacco industry, as detailed in the government’s Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan.  

  • Digital Tobacco Platform Launched

    Digital Tobacco Platform Launched

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    ModernLeaf AI has launched a digital platform offering artificial intelligence solutions to increase productivity for Zimbabwe’s tobacco growers and exporters across the value chain, reports the Zimbabwe Independent.

    “Looking beyond Zimbabwe envisions opportunities to expand the platform’s usage across Africa, signaling the need for investment in this ambitious endeavor,” said Takudzwa Sambo, founder of ModernLeaf AI. “ModernLeaf AI is poised to play a pivotal role in advancing the tobacco industry on the continent.”

    “With cutting-edge AI technology, ModernLeaf AI empowers you with precision crop monitoring, advanced predictive analysis, early disease detection, premium quality control updates, strategic market insights, cost-efficient solutions, export strategy and compliance in international markets, [and] tobacco business intelligence in over 120 countries,” said Sambo.

    Sambo emphasized that leveraging AI to propel Zimbabwe’s tobacco sector onward is a necessity. “I am grateful to the government for its vision outlined in Vision 2030, emphasizing the importance of youth involvement in realizing the strategic goals set forth in the National Development Strategy 1.”

  • Zimbabwe Tobacco Export Earnings Jump

    Zimbabwe Tobacco Export Earnings Jump

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Zimbabwe’s tobacco export earnings increased by a whopping 138 percent year-on-year to reach $436 million leaf in the first quarter of 2024, reports The Herald, as cigarette manufacturers were urged to explore high-paying markets.

    Traditionally a leading exporter of leaf tobacco, the country aims to extract more revenue from the business by moving to higher value products, such as cigarettes. In 2021, the government adopted the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, which seeks to build a $5 billion industry by 2025.

    Statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board reveal that cigarettes were the most lucrative export product, attracting prices of up to $7.44 per kilogram. Partly or wholly stemmed/stripped tobacco took second places, with earnings of $7.39 per kilogram, and smoking tobacco was third, earning $6.45 per kilogram.

    Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association chairman George Seremwe attributed the gains to hard work by farmers and other stakeholders along with the favorable weather in the 2022–2023 growing season, which resulted in good-quality leaf.

    He encouraged cigarette manufacturers to continue targeting markets that guarantee high prices for their products.

  • Zimbabwe: Farmers Urged to Clear Fields

    Zimbabwe: Farmers Urged to Clear Fields

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    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.

  • Officers Told to Stop Demanding Kickbacks

    Officers Told to Stop Demanding Kickbacks

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    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.”

  • Zimbabwean Shisha Crop Selling Rapidly

    Zimbabwean Shisha Crop Selling Rapidly

    Photo: Cavendish Lloyd

    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”).