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Next tobacco farming season prospects brighter 

Prospects for the next tobacco farming season are brighter with sales of tobacco seeds having already doubled from the 147 kilogrammes recorded during the last season.

With the supply of the golden leaf continuing to increase at the country's auction floors and growers getting attractive prices, demand for tobacco seeds has risen.

Figures from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board TIMB show close to 100% increase in seeds sold so far, compared to last season.

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US$60m tobacco facility unveiling triggers concern 

The unveiling of a whopping US$60 million tobacco facility by Afrexim Bank at the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association congress has triggered concern from Tobacco Regulatory Board, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board and representatives of small scale farmers.

The board and small scale farmers' representatives questioned the logic of unveiling such huge amounts of money to an association which represents only 200 white farmers at the expense of over 57 000 black farmers.

Salt lakes Holdings feel their exclusion from the occasion is back door way of re-empowering a few white commercial farmers at the expense of the newly resettled farmers who are now the backbone of agriculture sector.

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Zimbabwe Gets $60 Million to Boost Tobacco Output, Herald Says 

Zimbabwe secured a $60 million loan from the Africa Export Import Bank to boost tobacco production, the Herald reported, citing Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

The southern African nation needs about $120 million to increase annual tobacco output to 75 million kilograms (165 million pounds) from 42 million kilograms now, the Harare-based newspaper said.

Often-violent farm invasions by loyalists of President Robert Mugabe have seen tobacco production plummet

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Zimbabwe exports 22 million kg Virginia tobacco  

Zimbabwe has so far exported a total of 22.1 million kilograms of Virginia tobacco valued at about 66 million U.S. dollars to various destinations in the first five months of this year, according to The Herald on Tuesday.

However, this is a decrease from the 38.5 million kg worth 115.5 million dollars from the amount of tobacco that was exported during the same period last year.

This is attributed to challenges such as pricing and poor deliveries that haunted the sector last year.

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PASI: Tobacco Alone is Just not Enough  

Amidst all this excitement one can already see the genuine elation that finally, the farmers receive their toil’s worth. For some this means being able to meet school fees payments . . .

This year by many standards, will perhaps go down as one of the worst in recent memory vis-à-vis the overall production in this sector. Initial estimates of tobacco sales this year were put at 42 million kgs. . . .

Perhaps it is on this background that the Prime Minister has taken it upon himself to rally up international financial support. Initial indications suggest that it will take a lot more on this country’s part to gain any meaningful injections. A comparison has been made where a football club in Europe spends more buying just one player than total commitments in aid to Zimbabwe. The Deputy Prime Minister could not have put it better at the recent World Economic Forum when he suggested that what Zimbabwe needs is direct investment as opposed to aid. This is would be the only way out to create a sustainable economy. . . .

While some of these countries remain largely poor, pockets of wealthy individuals do exist and perhaps looking to Africa could pay dividends. Surely there are some with spare change for poor Zimbabwe.

The long and short of it is that the agricultural sector and tobacco in particular, will in its self require significant financial and human input to get back to past levels. Expecting tobacco alone and other such sectors to be the salvation will take much longer than initially anticipated. If the wealthy would much rather spend £80 million on a soccer player than investing in Zimbabwe, then maybe it is time Zimbabwe wakes up, smells the coffee and look for other alternatives.

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• Smokers Puff Away 200m Cigarettes 

ZIMBABWEANS puffed up close to 200 million cigarettes during the first quarter of the year, figures release by a leading cigarette maker showed.

Savannah Tobacco sold half a billion cigarette sticks in Zimbabwe and other markets during the first quarter of this year, executive chairman Adam Molai said.

Savannah Tobacco, which produces the Pacific brand of cigarettes, launched the cigarette brands a few years back buoyed by an aggressive product mix targeting both low-end to top-end consumers.

In Zimbabwe the company sold 168 million cigarette sticks in the first quarter while 322 million cigarettes found their way into foreign markets, according to figures released by Savannah.

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MILLS and HERBST: Bring Zimbabwe in From the Cold  

The United Nations calculates that just 6 percent of the work force is formally employed. More than 65 percent of the population urgently needs food assistance. Nearly 100,000 people have been struck by cholera in the last six months. While it used to be called the breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe now produces only about one-third of the grain it needs; tobacco, once its main export crop, has fallen to around one-sixth of the 2000 peak, the effect of the seizure of white-owned farms begun in earnest this decade. . ..

The Movement for Democratic Change has also recognized that the only way to deal with the tsunami of advisers and aid agencies that will eventually come is to establish a single entry point into the government for donors, likely in the prime minister's office, instead of allowing aid to go directly to ministries that may be run by Mugabe partisans. Donors should support this effort as a way to strengthen Mr. Tsvangirai.

There will be setbacks in Zimbabwe, but they can be overcome. As Mr. Tsvangirai told us, "Ask any Zimbabwean in the street -- no one wants to reverse the process." Instead of standing back and waiting, donors should do their part to help bring Zimbabwe back from the brink.

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Payment Delays Haunt Tobacco Farmers 

BUREAUCRATIC bungling in the payment system has caused a number of farmers to spend days camped at the tobacco auction floors, after selling their produce.

The delays are so far said to be Inexplicable, with farmers waiting for two days on the floors to get paid. A verification process is reported to be the major cause of the delays.

A number of tobacco growers failed to register before delivering their crop to the floors because they could not afford the US$10 required. They are paying the fee through a bureaucratic stop-order system.

Another problem is that there have been two groups of buyers in rotation at the three auction floors. They are alleged to arrive at some floors late, thus slowing down the start of the sales, which leads to the subsequent payment delays.

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• CHIKWATI: Good times for tobacco farmers but . . . 

THE good times are rolling again for farmers after the tobacco season started last week.

Under the current system farmers are being paid US$1 500 in cash payouts while the remainder of their proceeds are being deposited in their Foreign Currency Accounts.

While it’s all very well, this is a very precarious period for the farmers as it can make or break them, depending on their spending priorities or how they safeguard their produce.

I understand there was a raging debate on the amount of money that should be paid out to the farmers in cash, with some stakeholders holding the view that farmers should get at least US$500, judging by their conduct in previous seasons.

Some farmers, especially men, have been known to squander the proceeds from their sales.

They have been known, for instance, to marry second or third wives, or "living it up" . . .

Farmers’ unions should come to the forefront because their main responsibility, first and foremost, is to serve the farmer and this is one area that has not been effective.

Kudos to the auction floors for having made adequate provisions for farmers. . . .

I wish the tobacco growers a bountiful selling season and hope there will be no reports of people committing suicide as a result of misunderstandings over the spending of profits.

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Harare auctions off tiny tobacco crop 

Zimbabwe's tobacco selling season began yesterday with the smallest crop in two decades expected to go under the hammer, in the latest sign of how badly the economy has crumbled. About 42 million kilograms of tobacco is expected to pass through the auction floors, according to the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, a far cry from the peak of 236 million kilograms sold in 2000.

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Tobacco Season Opens 

The Tobacco marketing season opens Wednesday amid an estimated reduction of three million kilogrammes to be sold this year, figures by the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) show.

The ZTA estimates that 45 million kgs of tobacco will be sold this year down from 48 million kgs sold last year.

Information released by the ZTA indicates that tobacco production has decreased in the past 19 years from 133 million kgs in 1990 to 48 million kgs last year.

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• Quit Smoking for Africa 

SOS Children is launching a new campaign asking smokers to "quit for Africa".

"Even though everyone understands the health benefits" said ex-smoker and fundraising director Kathie Neal "giving up smoking is a long and painful haul which requires sticking power. Knowing that the money you save is directly helping children alone could really help".

Even if they buy some cigarettes abroad, smoking ten cigarettes a day typically costs a smoker between £60 and £120 a month, the same as the cost of 3 to 6 child sponsorships. SOS Children suggests that to increase the satisfaction of quitting and help smokers to celebrate their ongoing achievement they use just 60p a day, a small part of this saving, to sponsor a child in Zambia, Zimbabwe or Malawi, tobacco-growing areas of Africa. SOS Children helps children throughout Africa

"The actual benefit to the African worker from a tobacco smoker is tiny, since the losers when you quit smoking are mainly the tax man and tobacco companies (who get most of the money from cigarettes" explained SOS CEO Andrew Cates "but nonetheless it seems appropriate to give something back to the countries which will lose the export".

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Millions taken from Zim farm accounts  

Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped government has revealed that it owes tobacco farmers millions of dollars it siphoned out of their accounts without their authority. The country’s beleaguered central bank governor, Gideon Gono, revealed in a huge advert that he had spent US$18-million destined for accounts belonging to tobacco growers. . . .

Gono, who is under pressure to step down, said on Monday through an advert that the Zimbabwe government was paying back the farmers with bags of fertiliser. “Those wheat and tobacco farmers who are owed money by government through the Reserve Bank, are being repaid in the most direct way of supporting their current season’s production activities,” said Gono.

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Tobacco Selling Season Moved to Next Month  

THE 2009 tobacco selling season that was scheduled to kick off during the last week of this month may now be moved to next month.

The tobacco selling season traditionally opens in April each year. Tobacco Industry Marketing Board, which is responsible for tobacco sales has proposed April 29 as the tentative date for the opening of the 2009 season but this might change as the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair would be running during that time.

Officials within the industry said there was need, therefore, to defer the opening to the first week of May to accommodate the annual trade showcase.

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Liberalise tobacco industry: farmers 

TOBACCO growers have called on the Government to consider the liberalisation of the tobacco industry for viability purposes.

The farmers are calling for the liberalisation of the market, a move that will see them selling their crop to buyers with ready cash than to wait to sell at the auction floors.

This comes after the recent clampdown on middlemen and farmers who are engaging in illegal trade. The police are investigating farmers who are selling their tobacco to middlemen.

Some farmers interviewed said that it made more sense for farmers to sell their tobacco to buyers who come to them than for them to bear the cost of transporting the crop to the auction floors.

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