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Mukudzei Chingwere Herald Reporter
Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga has officially opened the 2024 Tobacco Marketing Season this morning with a call to stakeholders to now prioritise local tobacco value addition.
The official opening saw the first bale going under the hammer for US$4, 92 per kilogramme up from US$4, 35 registered at last year’s official opening.
Production is this year expected to be around 265 million kilogrammes below the projected 300 million kilogrammes after some targets were not met due to the El Nino ravaged year, Government’s efforts to ramp up production to a national target of 300 million kilogrammes by 2025 which is a key anchor of the broader national strategy of an upper middle-income economy as set by President Mnangagwa.
The golden leaf is the country’s single second largest foreign currency earning export product after gold and Government is keen to see its continued production growth.
In his official opening speech, Vice President Chiwenga said Government’s eyes are transfixed on the role of tobacco to uplift people’s livelihoods and the next frontier was to promote local value addition, a key pillar of Zimbabwe’s national development strategy.
“We have exported enough of our leaf, we must now beneficiate it here. We must not only end at growing but beneficiation,” said VP Chiwenga.
“Government is concerned that we still export 98 percent of our tobacco in raw form, in the process exporting jobs and value.
“In tandem with our value addition and beneficiation thrust, the Second Republic has laid down a comprehensive plan in the tobacco value chain.
“I am pleased with current investments in tobacco processing plants in the country to give impetus to value addition from the current two percent of tobacco produced to over 30 percent.
“As Government, we are creating an enabling environment for entities interested in value addition and beneficiation of Zimbabwean tobacco, in the broader framework of a private sector led economy,” said VP Chiwenga.
Zimbabwe produced 211 million kg of tobacco in 2021, 212 million kg in 2022 and this season’s expectation of the crop is not far off the mark coming on the back of a climate induced drought ravaged year.
The chairman of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), Mr Patrick Devenish, said the country’s tobacco sector will get a fine tuning and global benchmarking when it host the World Tobacco Africa Conference this year in Harare.
Mr Devenish said the tobacco industry relies on maintaining highest standards and implored players to be disciplined.
He also said they are working on reducing cost of production to farmers through measures like a partnership with Hwange Colliery for farmers to get discounted coal.
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