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Tag: Zimbabwe

  • Zimbabwe: Preparation for Growing Season on Track

    Zimbabwe: Preparation for Growing Season on Track

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    The Zimbabwean tobacco industry is increasingly confident it will achieve 300 million kg in the 2024–2025 season, reports The Herald.

    In a statement on Oct. 10, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board Public Affairs Officer Chelesani Tsarwe said preparations for the upcoming growing season were progressing well, with most farmers expressing optimism about the cropping period.

    With consistent rainfall and moderate temperatures expected, farmers are better positioned to maximize their outputs than they were in the most recent growing season.  

    “We are optimistic about achieving the set target, thanks to the favorable weather forecast,” said Tsarwe.

    Despite the drought caused by El Nino, tobacco fared relatively well last year. The yield decreased by 20 percent from the previous season, reaching about 231 million kg in 2023.

    As of Oct. 4, 2024, Zimbabwe had exported 159.43 million kg of tobacco valued at $833.99 million compared to 143.23 million kg during the same period last year.

    “The average export price this year stands at $5.23, marking an increase from $4.99 recorded during the same period last year,” said Tsarwe.

    Last year, the country earned $1.3 billion from tobacco exports, up 30 percent over 2022.

    Eager to capture more value from the tobacco business, the government wants Zimbabwe to boost leaf output and move into value-added activities such as cigarette manufacturing.

  • Land Reform Beneficiaries to Receive Tenure

    Land Reform Beneficiaries to Receive Tenure

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Zimbabwe will give Black farmers who benefited from land seizures in the early 2000s tenure, allowing them to use their properties as collateral or sell them, reports Bloomberg.

    “All land held by beneficiaries of the land reform program under 99-year leases, offer letters and permits will now be held under a bankable, registrable and transferable more secure document of tenure, to be issued by the government,” said Information Minister Jenfan Muswere Oct. 8 in Harare.

    The latest “measures will have a huge impact on our economic growth, and will unlock the full value of the land while enhancing the performance of our economy,” Muswere said. “This will facilitate accelerated investments in agriculture and associated value chains, which include irrigation, dam construction, power supply and rural road construction.”

    Nearly two decades ago, Zimbabwe under then President Robert Mugabe began seizing properties from commercial farmers, including many tobacco farmers, in order to redress “colonial imbalances.”

    Most prime properties in the country were held by whites, who constitute a minority of Zimbabwe’s population

    The controversial land reform program caused Zimbabwe’s agricultural industry and tobacco output to collapse, causing a severe economic crisis characterized by hyperinflation and other problems.

    Whereas Zimbabwe’s entire tobacco crop was once supplied by perhaps 1,500 large-scale growers, today’s crop is supplied more than 100,000 smallholders.

    The southern African country has since agreed to pay $3.5 billion in compensation to the white commercial farmers.

    In terms of volume, the tobacco industry has recovered from land reform. In 2023, Zimbabwe harvested a record 296 million kg and earned more than $1 billion from leaf exports.

  • TIMB Deploys Biometrics to Curb Side Marketing

    TIMB Deploys Biometrics to Curb Side Marketing

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) is pioneering a new biometric management system to curb side marketing, a practice in which farmers sell their crops to noncontracting merchants and deprive the investor of his tobacco.

    The regulatory body is collecting fingerprints from each tobacco farmer and linking them to their unique grower number. The biometric data is complemented by GPS coordinates of the growers’ farms. When farmers collect inputs, contractors can verify a growers’ authenticity using a scanner.

    The system makes it impossible for farmers to contract with multiple tobacco merchants. It also captures the indebtedness of farmers, minimizing the potential for contractors to manipulate the growers’ financial obligations.

    “The system will help eliminate corrupt elements by verifying their identities and improving the stop order system to prevent the misuse of growers’ numbers,” TIMB acting CEO Emmanuel Matsvaire told The Sunday Mail.

    The old system, which relied solely on registration, allowed nonfarmers to participate in the market, fueling side marketing and leading to high rates of default.

    Side marketing remains a significant problem in the Zimbabwean tobacco industry, responsible for millions of dollars in lost revenue.

    In 2023, TIMB blocked nearly 550 grower numbers on suspicion of their use in side marketing. In 2021, five exporters alone lost $57 million due to the practice.

    Meanwhile, preparations for the upcoming cropping season are progressing as the country seeks to achieve a tobacco yield of 300 million kg, according to Matsvaire.

    Despite the El Nino drought that destroyed various crops last year, tobacco performed relatively well, declining by 20 percent to approximately 231 million kg from a record 297 million kg during the previous season.

    This season’s target aligns with the government’s Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, which also aims to enhance beneficiation and raise local funding.

  • Atlas to Increase Air-Cured Production

    Atlas to Increase Air-Cured Production

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Atlas Agri Zimbabwe plans to significantly increase its air-cured tobacco hectarage this season.

    According to The Herald, the sole contractor of this variety in Zimbabwe intends to grow 100 ha in 2024–2025.

    “So far, we have engaged over 150 farmers to produce the crop on over 100 hectares, up from last year’s 10 hectares that were done by 17 farmers,” Atlas Agri CEO Alex Mackay was quoted as saying.

    According to Mackay, many of the farmers who participated in the inaugural test expressed satisfaction with their sales. The top performing grower delivered 608 kg and received an average price of USD3.10 per kilogram.

    The success of the project has attracted more farmers.

    “We have seen over 300 new farmers applying for contracts, expanding our reach to Plum Tree, Fig Tree and the wider Mangwe region,” said Mackay. “Looking ahead, we have several initiatives in the pipeline aimed at enhancing yield and quality.”

    Atlas Agri aims to boost returns for its farmers while protecting the environment. Instead of relying on wood for curing fuel, the company’s contracted farmers rely entirely on natural elements.

    With the support and guidance from Agritex and the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), the company hopes to benefit both farmers and the economy in line with the government’s Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, according to Mackay.

    TIMB acting CEO Emmanuel Matsvaire noted that the cost of producing air-cured tobacco is relatively low at around USD400 per hectare.

  • Zimbabwe Firms Seek Help Entering Foreign Markets

    Zimbabwe Firms Seek Help Entering Foreign Markets

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Representatives of indigenous tobacco companies have asked the Zimbabwean government to help them secure export markets to widen their revenue base, reports The Herald.

    Company officials met separately with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Resettlement chaired by Felix Maburutse on Sept. 20.

    Richard Machingura, head of operations and agronomy at Norton Leaf Tobacco, said indigenous-owned companies in the tobacco sector were struggling to access foreign markets and would benefit from assistance from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, which regulates the domestic industry.  

    “As tobacco companies, we are also facing some challenges in the markets,” he was quoted as saying. “You will find that most of our tobacco locally, we are just doing the intermediate trading. So, we have a challenge of markets where we are not really able to export our tobacco, and this is affecting the growth of our industry,” he said.

    Zimbabwe’s tobacco export earnings increased 138 percent year-on-year to reach $436 million in the first quarter of this year.

    Traditionally a leading exporter of flue-cured Virginia, 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.

  • Zimbabwe Growers Start Planting Irrigated Tobacco

    Zimbabwe Growers Start Planting Irrigated Tobacco

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Tobacco farmers in Zimbabwe started planting irrigated tobacco this week, with many expressing optimism about the upcoming growing season, reports The Herald.

    Zimbabwe law stipulates Sept. 1 as the earliest legislative date for transplanting tobacco from the seedbed to the field. The bulk of rain-fed tobacco crop will be planted from late October to early December.

    Most irrigated tobacco is grown by contracted growers who get their inputs on time. About 95 percent of the country’s crop is grown by contracted farmers.

    “We have high hopes this season following the weather forecast so farmers are in the fields,” said  Tobacco Farmers Union Trust President Victor Mariranyika.

     Zimbabwean growers earned $793.18 million from 231.47 million kg in tobacco sales during the most recent marketing season, compared with $896.38 million from 295.94 million kg the previous year.

    However, most farmers made more money than in the prior season, leaving them in a good position for the upcoming growing season.

  • Tobacco Board Leaders Arrested for Fraud

    Tobacco Board Leaders Arrested for Fraud

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission has arrested two senior executives of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) and charged them with fraud, reports The Sunday Mail.

    TIMB chairperson Patrick Devenish and TIMB CEO Meanwell Gudu are accused of extending a loan facility of over US$494,000 to Ultime Accolade Private in May 2021 without the knowledge of the tobacco industry regulator’s board.

    The pair appeared in court just a day after Gudu was acquitted of criminal abuse of office charges involving more than $2 million.

    Gudu was previously charged alongside Stuart Shanyika, a former head of special services at the TIMB, and Andrew Evaristo Matibiri, a former TIMB CEO. The trio was arrested in September 2022.

    The state alleged that the executives, acting in connivance, entered into private agreements with handpicked tobacco contractors.

    They allegedly used funds from a TIMB loan obtained from Agribank through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to support these companies, contrary to provisions of the loan agreement.

  • Zimbabwe Poised to Set New Records

    Zimbabwe Poised to Set New Records

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Zimbabwe is poised to plant a record area of tobacco for the 2024–2025 growing season, reports The Herald.

    As of Aug. 1, growers had purchased more than 1 million grams of seed with potential to cover 201,036 hectares, according to the Kutsaga Tobacco Research Board. By the same time last year, they had bought only 831,000 grams with the capacity to plant 164,200 hectares.

    Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association chairman George Seremwe said the likelihood is high that the country will eclipse both the area record of 146,000 hectares, set in 2019, and the output record of 296 million kg, established in 2023.

    “This could be a record-breaking year encouraged by last season’s good prices and the absence of alternative crops paying better than the golden leaf,” he was quoted as saying.

    Tobacco Farmers Union Trust Vice President Edward Dune noted that seed sales were a reliable index for hectarage estimations. “Given the tobacco pricing matrix over the years, coupled with the positive effects of the forecast La Nina weather, farmers will have no choice but do anything possible to get good quality leaf that will fetch high prices,” he said.

  • Kutsaga Releases Climate Resilient Seeds

    Kutsaga Releases Climate Resilient Seeds

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Zimbabwe’s Kutsaga Tobacco Research Board (TRB) has unveiled new tobacco hybrids designed to thrive in challenging climatic conditions.

    Frank Magama

    According to TRB CEO Frank Magama, the varieties grow rapidly, allowing them to withstand the impacts of drought and heat, which have become increasingly prevalent in the country due to the impact of climate change. Furthermore, the new varieties are resistant to multiple tobacco diseases.

    The TRB says they can yield between 2,500 and 3,000 kilograms per hectare even in the harshest environments.

    The new varieties are currently undergoing a limited-release program, targeting farmers in the arid regions of Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland South.

    “This program ensured that all Kutsaga varieties are extensively tested for their drought tolerance,” Magama told The Herald.

    More than 85 percent of Zimbabwean tobacco growers are smallholders, whose lack of irrigation facilities leaves their operations dependent solely on rainfall.

    This year’s El Nino weather phenomenon caused prolonged drought in Zimbabwe, resulting in low yields, poor-quality tobacco and reduced revenue.

    As the 2024 marketing season draws to a close, national crop output stands at 226 million kg, down from last year’s record-breaking harvest of 298 million kg.

  • Zimbabwean Cigarette Exports up by Half

    Zimbabwean Cigarette Exports up by Half

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Zimbabwean cigarette exports rose from $71 million in 2022 to $106 million in 2023, reports The Herald

    A leading exporter of leaf tobacco, Zimbabwe has been keen to move up the value chain by producing products beyond raw tobacco.

    Zimbabwe is currently Africa’s sixth-largest tobacco exporter, behind countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia, according to Trade Statistics for International Business Development. Worldwide, it ranks 42nd among cigarette exporting nations.

    No African country was on the world’s list of 30 top cigarette exporters in 2023.