Online Reporter
Agriculture Reporter
THE Government will intensify tobacco processing and value addition from 2026 going forward to grow exports of finished products from the industry, a senior official has said.
Plans are afoot to establish processing plants locally to maximise profits from the golden leaf.
In an interview, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development permanent secretary, Prof Obert Jiri, said he was confident the tobacco industry would surpass the 355 million kilogrammes produced last year and possibly reach 500 million kg by 2030.
“Now that we have consolidated in terms of production, we must move to value addition and beneficiation, ensuring that those who want our tobacco can establish their processing plants in Zimbabwe and they export the finished product,” he said.
“When we started the tobacco journey, we had our plan, the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, which we have run with.
“The focus was to ensure that we consolidate in terms of production to bring us to 300 million kg, which we almost attained in 2023 when we hit 296 million kg.
“In 2025, we achieved 355 million kgs of tobacco, which has never been done before, ever since the start of the production of tobacco in this country.”
The tobacco industry used to be dominated by a few white commercial farmers, but since the land reform at the turn of the millennium, more than 140 000 smallholders participate in the production across the country.
The industry has moved from predominantly large-scale farming to small-scale, with more than 80 percent of the producers being smallholder black farmers.
“Now we have reached the levels that we never thought were possible. Going forward, we are looking at hitting 400 million or maybe 500 million kgs by 2030,” said Prof Jiri.
“We are also now moving from just production to where we are going towards value addition and beneficiation. We don’t want to export the leaf; we want to produce and export the final product, including the cigarettes themselves. We want our farmers to benefit.
“From the 355 million kilogrammes produced in 2025, the country benefited US$1,2 billion in terms of sales. But look at what can happen if we convert 355 million kgs to cigarettes. That automatically gets us to more than US$40 billion in terms of value, we need, therefore, to emphasise that to move from US$1,2 billon.”
Tobacco production has been on the increase and emphasis is now being put on beneficiation.
The country is the largest tobacco producer in Africa and the fourth largest globally.
Tobacco accounts for roughly 50 percent of agricultural exports and employs thousands across the country.
In November, President Mnangagwa commissioned a state-of-the-art tobacco processing plant in Harare valued at US$100 million.
Incentivising investment in local processing and cigarette manufacturing will reduce reliance on raw leaf exports.
