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BH24 Reporter
HARARE – Cardinal Chartered Accountants (Zimbabwe) will this month host the inaugural tobacco business conference aimed assisting tobacco farmers to enhance their businesses.
Chief executive Ericanos Matukudure said the conference, set for March 12, aims to influence tobacco farmers to treat farming as a business.
“The tobacco industry is a multimillion dollar business and should be treated as such if farmers want to reap maximum benefits from their produce.
“The tendency by growers, especially small scale farmers, to spent the bulk of their earning from the sale of their tobacco on non-capital goods such as wardrobes and other household property at the expense of inputs is detrimental to the growth of the business.
“What we are therefore doing is bring the farmers, especially commercial farmers, technical, financial, weather, research, agricultural experts, the Ministry and regulator together under one roof so that they get the total package,” he said.
He said that they had tried to cover all the critical aspects that are key to tobacco production.
“We have tried to get experts that are involved right from the planting to nurturing of the crop right through to reaping and then marketing.
“For instance we have experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, the regulator, the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board, Metrological department, the Tobacco Research Board, the fertiliser companies, banks, insurance firms, suppliers and auction floor representatives,” he said.
The conference, which will run under the theme “Harnessing the tobacco farming business for economic turnaround and economic growth” would be headlined by Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Chief Air Marshal (Retired) Perrance Shiri.
Other speakers include Tobacco Industry Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri and Providence Human Capital managing director Chipo Ndudzo amongst others.
Online Reporter