The statistics also show that on day 75 the crop raked in $4,6 million compared to $2,8 million realised on day 82.
Stakeholders have said the slump in tobacco sales was due to low volumes of deliveries at the auction floors traditionally experienced as the marketing season draws to an end.
Since the onset of the marketing season in mid- February, 119,5 million kg worth $445,7 million had been delivered to the auction floors.
The seasonal average price was $3,73 a kg.
Zimbabwe had projected that 150 million kg of the golden leaf would go under the hammer this year, but Finance Minister Tendai Biti said only 130 million kg was likely to be delivered.
Before the economic down turn, tobacco was the country’s major foreign currency earner.
In 1999, Zimbabwe peaked production of tobacco leaf at 271 million kg.
The adoption of a multi-currency system in February 2009 has seen Zimbabwe slowly moving towards regaining its status as one of the major producers of the golden leaf in the world. Over the past three years, the number of tobacco growers has been on an increase.
This year the number of registered tobacco growers has so far increased by eight percent from 2011 figures to 70 260.
Last year, 65 221 farmers registered to grow the golden leaf.
TIMB has also revealed that 19 744 growers have so far registered for the next season.



