Online Reporter
Cut Rag Processors is set to launch its US$102 million integrated tobacco processing facility tomorrow, a major feat in the country’s quest for value addition to maximise earnings from tobacco.
The new plant can process three million kilogrammes of cut rag for export monthly and produce 60 000 cigarette master cases, businessman and owner of CRP, Mr Simon Rudland, told this publication.
“It can produce 60 000 cigarette master cases. The total capital outlay for the building and the machinery is US$102 million,” Mr Rudland said.
President Mnangagwa is expected to officially commission the new factory.
Cut Rag Processors is one of Zimbabwe’s largest exporters of cut rag and the manufacturer of the cigarette brand, Remington Gold.
The company’s new plant will feature both Primary Manufacturing Department (PMD) and Secondary Manufacturing Department (SMD) processing lines.
Tobacco value beneficiation and value addition are typically two-stage processes.
The first stage involves the primary processing of tobacco leaf into cut rag (fine strips) blends, while the second involves the secondary processing, which is the actual manufacturing of cigarettes from the cut rag.
The CRP’s new facility is strategically timed, coming when the country surpassed its tobacco output target this season in line with the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan (TVCTP).
The focus has now firmly shifted toward beneficiation and value addition to maximise earnings.
The shift is key given that official statistics indicate that Zimbabwe, despite being the largest producer of tobacco in Africa and the fifth-largest globally, is realising only minimal value from the crop.
This is largely due to the tobacco (about 90 percent) being exported semi-processed.
For instance, the value of tobacco delivered by farmers for the 2025 marketing season was approximately US$1,2 billion, from a record-breaking volume of over 354 million kilogrammes.
But according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, an average of 12 percent of net earnings is being realised from the export of the crop, touted as the country’s second largest foreign currency earner.
In 2024, Zimbabwe produced 231 million kg of tobacco.
Of this total, 71,1 million kg was available for value addition.
However, only 7,2 million kg was actually value-added, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
The 7,2 million kg represents 10 percent of the total tobacco available for value addition, and was processed as follows: 3,316 million kg used to make cigarettes and 3,884 million kg converted into cut rag.
Under the TVCTP, the target is to increase the value added to tobacco to 25 percent of output.
Zimbabwe’s tobacco sector has three major cut rag producers: CRP, Amador, and British American Tobacco.
The major cigarette manufacturers in the country are BAT, Cut Rag Processors and Pacific.
According to industry experts, there is a huge multiplier effect on earnings when tobacco is value-added.
Several interventions proposed include Government incentives for local beneficiation, specifically targeting the tobacco value chain, the creation of support industries for materials needed in cigarette manufacturing to reduce imports, partnering with potential markets for local toll cigarette manufacturing and Government lines of credit to support the local cigarette industry – Business Reporter.
