Tobacco marketing season draws to a close

THE tobacco 2023 tobacco marketing season is set to end on 31 July and the final auction mop-up sales are planned for 30 August with an estimated 290,4 million kilograms of tobacco sold to date.

The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Dr Anxious Jongwe Masuka approved the closure period.

“After consultations with all stakeholders, the Board wishes to advise that the official date of closure for the 2023 auction floors is 31 July. However, growers will still be able to sell their auction tobacco through a mop-up sale. The final auction clean up sales will be held on Wednesday 30 August 2023,” the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) said in a notice on Monday.

Contract sales will continue to operate until such a time when individual contractors have fully received all their tobacco.

Meanwhile, a total of 290,4 million kilograms of tobacco have gone under the hammer since the start of the selling season raking in US$880 million compared to US$605 million in the corresponding period last year.

Last week, TIMB said during the same period last year 198,3 million kg were sold at the auction floors.

The latest statistics indicate that 270,5 million kg have so far been sold through the contract arrangement while 19,9 million kgs have come through the auction arrangement. The average price was at US$3,03 per kg compared to US$3,05 during the same period last year.

Tobacco farmers retain 85 percent in forex while the balance is paid in Zimbabwe dollars.

The increase in foreign currency retention by the tobacco growers is part of a broader strategy by the Government to ramp up output to a national target of 300 million kg by 2025. This is key in the broader national strategy of an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

Last year, tobacco growers were paid 75 percent in forex while the balance was in local currency.

Through the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, Zimbabwe aims to build the industry into a US$5 billion economy by 2025. Tobacco is Zimbabwe’s agricultural major foreign currency earner after raking US$800 million the whole of 2021.-chronicle