Value addition boost as CRP unveils US$102 million tobacco processing plant

Business Reporter

CUT RAG PROCESSORS (CRP) will launch its US$102 million integrated tobacco processing facility — a major milestone in Zimbabwe’s drive for value addition to maximise earnings from tobacco.

The new plant has the capacity to process three million kilogrammes of cut rag for export monthly and produce 60 000 cigarette master cases, businessman and CRP owner Mr Simon Rudland, told this publication.

“It can produce 60 000 cigarette master cases. The total capital outlay for the building and machinery is US$102 million,” said Mr Rudland.

President Mnangagwa is expected to officially commission the factory.
Cut Rag Processors is one of Zimbabwe’s largest exporters of cut rag and the manufacturer of the popular cigarette brand Remington Gold. The new plant will feature both Primary Manufacturing Department (PMD) and Secondary Manufacturing Department (SMD) processing lines.

Tobacco value beneficiation and value addition generally involve two stages: primary processing, which converts tobacco leaf into cut rag (fine strips) blends, and secondary processing, which focuses on manufacturing cigarettes from the cut rag.

CRP’s new facility comes at a strategic time, as Zimbabwe surpassed its tobacco output target this season under the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan (TVCTP). The focus has now shifted to beneficiation and value addition to maximise earnings.

This shift is critical given official statistics showing that Zimbabwe — Africa’s largest tobacco producer and the fifth-largest globally — earns minimal value from the crop because about 90 percent is exported semi-processed. For example, tobacco delivered by farmers for the 2025 marketing season was valued at approximately US$1,2 billion from a record-breaking volume of 354 million kilogrammes. Yet, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, only 12 percent of net earnings is realised from exports of the crop, which is the country’s second-largest foreign currency earner.

In 2024, Zimbabwe produced 231 million kilogrammes of tobacco, with 71.1 million kilogrammes earmarked for value addition. However, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), only 7.2 million kilogrammes — representing just 10 percent of the available amount — were actually processed. Of this, 3.316 million kilogrammes were used to manufacture cigarettes, while 3.884 million kilogrammes were converted into cut rag.
Under the TVCTP, the target is to increase value-added tobacco to 25 percent of output.

Zimbabwe’s tobacco sector currently has three major cut rag producers: CRP, Amador, and British American Tobacco (BAT). The main cigarette manufacturers are BAT, CRP, and Pacific.

Industry experts emphasise the significant multiplier effect on earnings when tobacco undergoes value addition. To unlock this potential, they propose several interventions, including government incentives to promote local beneficiation within the tobacco value chain, the establishment of support industries for cigarette manufacturing materials to reduce reliance on imports, partnerships with potential markets for toll cigarette manufacturing, and the provision of government-backed lines of credit to strengthen the local cigarette industry.