Tobacco.org

• International tobacco buyers jump over Zim, land in Malawi 

ZIMBABWE stands to lose millions of dollars in potential earnings from tobacco as international buyers are flocking to Malawi, shunning the local auction floors where a dispute over prices and the exchange rate have delayed the selling season.

This comes as it also emerged that local farmers are smuggling their tobacco out of the country to get better prices. The farmers say they will hold on to their crop until the central bank agrees to their demands for a special exchange rate.

Farmers who spoke to businessdigest this week said merchants who had arrived a week after the scheduled opening of auction floors on March 14 left the country for Malawi a fortnight ago where auction floors opened last week. Some former commercial white farmers displaced by the land reform programme are now based in Malawi.

Jump to full article »