Tobacco industry stakeholders call for increased value addition and processing

Elita Chikwati

Stakeholders in Zimbabwe’s tobacco industry have called for increased value addition and processing to maximise the crop’s economic benefits.

This emerged at the ongoing Zimpapers Tobacco Conference in Harare.

According to Mr. Tapiwa Chimedza, representing TIMB CEO Mr. Emmanuel Matsvaire, the industry’s performance in processing tobacco into cigarettes remains below capacity. Despite targeting 30 percent local value addition by 2025, in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), the current value addition stands at 10.5 percent, up from 8.8 percent in 2023.

“Cut rag processors have a capacity of 30.4 million kgs, but are only processing 7.3 million kgs. Nine cigarette manufacturers are capable of producing 17 billion sticks annually, yet are only producing 4 billion sticks,” he said.

Ministry of Industry and Commerce Director, Mr Dayford Nhema, highlighted the need to promote value addition to increase earnings from tobacco production.

“The Ministry is working with ZIDA and the Ministry of Finance to unlock sustainable financing that promotes local ownership of processing assets,” he said.