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Agriculture Reporter
THE Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has urged farmers to handle their crop with utmost care throughout the whole production and processing stages to get high market prices as the 2025 marketing season beckons.
In an X (formerly Twitter) post, TIMB said: “High quality tobacco that is properly grown, cured, conditioned, graded and baled attracts top prices at the market. Invest in good practices and the rewards will follow.”
The board also advised growers to handle their tobacco with care at every stage to avoid lamina damage by reaping properly to avoid tearing, using tilita and manipular clips, transporting carefully to prevent damage as well as loading the barn evenly for proper curing.
Good handling produces better quality leaf and high profits, added TIMB.
TIMB has been conducting free weekly trainings to growers at their premise in Harare since the start of the season.
In their various advisory notices and books, TIMB revealed that grading starts before the crop is planted. Among some of the points that have a bearing on the outcome of grading are: land selection and preparation, fumigation, fertilisation, seedling selection, topping, suckering, reaping, curing and storage.
According to TIMB the aim of grading is to present tobacco in a manner that enhances both its use and value to the buyers by sorting out leaves of similar characteristics into uniform lots for sale. The grading process is labour-intensive requiring a high degree of management and supervision in order that maximum benefit is obtained from the product for sale while maintaining an acceptable level of throughput from the grading shed.
There are various technical factors, which buyers take into account when purchasing, processing and packaging tobacco for export. These factors include chemical composition, smoking characteristics, flavour and aroma, cutting quality, filling value or capacity and moisture content of the tobacco.
As of January 10, this year, TIMB had registered 126 474 growers compared to 112 914 in the same period last year.
A total of 120 106 hectares of tobacco had been transplanted compared to last year’s 108 949.
The first round of crop assessment took place from January 13 to 17 and the results are yet to be released. TIMB deployed 16 experts to visit tobacco farms in Mashonaland East, West, Central and Manicaland provinces to assess tobacco production stages and quality to generate estimates of possible output.
The Government came up with the tobacco value chain transformation plan (TVCTP) in 2021 to secure the future and consolidate the important role of the tobacco value chain to the economy.
The TVCTP seeks to transform the tobacco value chain into a US$5 billion industry by 2025 through localisation of tobacco funding, increased production and productivity, value addition and beneficiation as well as exports of cigarettes in order to contribute significantly to gross domestic product (GDP) growth, foreign currency generation, employment creation and raising household incomes in pursuit of Vision 2030.
For the 2024/25 season the country is recovering from the debilitating effect of the El Nino induced drought of last year and is targeting production of 300 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf to surpass the record high of 296 million.
Online Reporter