Tobacco selling season dates announcement in two weeks

Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chairman, Patrick Devenish, says the regulator is expected to announce dates for opening of tobacco selling season in a fortnight.

He said 2023 tobacco marketing season will open earlier to curb side-marketing and also ensure the season ends before the harmonised general elections.

The tobacco selling season opened on March 30 last year and closed on October 21.

Zimbabweans are expected to go to polls to elect President, legislators and councilors in harmonised general elections to be held between July and August.

“So far, the message has gone to all stakeholders about the planned early opening of the marketing season. “Though a date is yet to be announced, our expectation is to open earlier than last year to curb side-marketing of the crop and to close the season before the general elections.

“The opening date will be announced in the next two weeks,” he said in an interview.

The golden leaf is one of Zimbabwe’s major foreign currency earners generating about 30 percent of the country’s foreign currency earning bringing in nearly US$1 billion.

At present, TIMB is undertaking a crop assessment in all tobacco growing regions to prepare a crop estimate for the selling season.

Devenish said everything was on track ahead of the upcoming selling season with farmers harvesting the crop.

In a separate interview, the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) president, Dr Shadreck Makombe, said they have received communication from TIMB that this year’s marketing season is anticipated to open earlier than the previous season.

“Given the bigger hecterage on which tobacco is on this year, in terms of preparedness, it goes to follow that as well. Farmers are preparing to go to the market and TIMB has been proactive in terms of market information dissemination to curb side-marketing of the crop,” he said.

Recently, TIMB decentralised the selling of the golden leaf to all the growing regions with 90 selling points established as part of a broader scope to curb side-marketing.

The Government has gazetted Statutory Instrument 77 of 2022 to prohibit side-marketing.

Dr Makombe said although details on crop estimate are yet to be availed, the farmers are upbeat that this year’s yield will be better than last year premised on the hecterage under tobacco as well as the prevailing wet spell being experienced across the country.

“Though I don’t have off hand the statistics on the hecterage under tobacco, this year’s hecterage is bigger than last year and with the wet spell being experienced in most parts of the country, we anticipate the yield to be better than in 2022.

“So far, the quality of the crop is good and we don’t anticipate any damage to the crop as a result of the current rains. In terms of the agronomic practices, the farmers have been and are looking after the crop very well from seedbed to the auction,” he said.

In the last marketing season, tobacco growers were paid 75 percent directly into their foreign currency accounts and this was treated as free funds while 25 percent Zimbabwe dollar was deposited into the producers’ local currency accounts or paid through e-wallets.

This year, tobacco farmers have indicated that they are anticipating a higher foreign currency retention and submissions have already been made to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe with the issues expected to be addressed in the 2023 monetary policy statement due for release next month.

About 160 000 farmers grow tobacco in the country which is then exported as flue-cured across the globe to over 60 countries such as China, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Japan, Yemen, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, and Madagascar.-ebusinessweekly