By Margaret Kamba
Tobacco auction floors roared to life this Wednesday with ZANU PF Second Secretary and Vice President Cde Constantino Chiwenga commending His Excellency, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa for launching strategies that are churning the industry forward.
What makes this story interesting is that, it has mostly been the black majority who having previously been deprived of their land, now till it and are contributing immensely to the economic growth of their country. Having fought a protracted struggle for the same land, it can only be said that the sacrifice of the gallant sons and daughters of Zimbabwe did not go to waste.
Zimbabwe's Land Reform story began a long time ago and has seen the interweaven efforts of the country's different generations growing their economy through this agricultural sector.
The illegally imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe inculcated in the indigenous people the resilience and zeal to build their own country using the natural resources available to them.
It is the inspiring stories of the Bonyongwa boys of the Golden Barley Enterprises in Midlands Province, the chicken breeding projects by Wilson Nyamande in Nyazura and many others dotted across the country, that are changing the landscape and face of Zimbabwe.
For the tobacco industry, the young and old black farmers have come to master the art of growing this golden leaf which is in high demand abroad and have also managed to transform the rural communities they come from.
With calls for Zimbabwe and the whole of Africa in general to be self-sufficient and desist from over-reliance to the West, it is only a matter of time before this African dream and vision is achieved.
"I am delighted to be here this morning to officially launch the start of the 2024 tobacco marketing season. This is an important event in the country's farming calendar as agriculture remains one of the key sectors in our accelerated drive to achieve an empowered and prosperous upper Middle-Income society by 2030. You are all aware that, in 2020, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, His Excellency Dr. Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa launched the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy. This has now been refined to the Agriculture, Food Systems and Rural Transformation Strategy, aimed at enhancing agriculture production, productivity and profitabilty in line with the National Development Strategy (NDS1) (2021-2025)," Cde Chiwenga said.
"Government regards the tobacco industry as a sector that has great potential to grow and increase our country's export earnings. This realization led to the launch of the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan. The thrust of the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan is to transform the tobacco value chain into a USD5 billion industry by 2025. This will be achieved through increased production and productivity, increasing local production to Three Hundred Million Kilogrammes annually, localisation of tobacco production financing, value addition and beneficiation as well as exports of cigarettes, employment creation and raising household incomes, among others.
"Agriculture makes a significant contribution to foreign currency earnings and tobacco remains the flagship of this sector. Government is pleased to note that tobacco production in the country has rebounded significantly since the advent of the land reform programme. Zimbabwe produced Two Hundred and Eleven Million Kilogrammes of tobacco, Two Hundred and Twelve Million Kilogrammes and a record breaking Two Hundred and Ninety Six Million Kilogrammes in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively. The target is now to increase production from the current Two Hundred and Ninety-Six Million Kilogrammes to Three Hundred Million Kilogrammes annually, as stipulated in the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan. In this endeavor, I challenge all stakeholders in the tobacco value chain to work hand in glove to achieve and surpass this target."
The Vice President added that "Government through the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, remains committed to capacitating tobacco farmers by localizing financing for the One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Producers. We are aware that there were some bottlenecks in rolling out that programme which the responsible Ministry has addressed. Furthermore, in a bid to mitigate the increased cost of production, the foreign currency retention for tobacco growers for the 2023/24 tobacco marketing season was standardised at Seventy Five percent in line with the retention level for other market players. This effectively means that Twenty Five percent will be paid to tobacco growers in local currency. I urge growers to also participate at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe auction to get foreign currency from the United States Dollar payments."
He said "Government is concerned that we still export Ninety Eight percent of our tobacco in raw form, in the process exporting jobs and value. In tandem with our value addition and beneficiation thrust, the Second Republic has laid down a comprehensive plan in the tobacco value chain. I am pleased with current investments in tobacco processing plants in the country to give impetus to value addition from the current Two percent of tobacco produced to over Thirty percent. As Government, we are creating an enabling environment for entities interested in value addition and beneficiation of Zimbabwean tobacco, in the broader framework of a private sector led economy."
Speaking at the same event, TIMB Chairman Patrick Devenish said the hard work of the tobacco farmers must be applauded.
"The just ended production season was one such year which the Meteorological Services Department of Zimbabwe predicted a strong El Niño event occurring between October 2023 and March 2024. It was predicted that this event was expected to have adverse effects on rainfall from October 2023 to March 2024, potentially leading to drought conditions in Zimbabwe. Anticipated outcomes included a delayed onset of rainfall and prolonged dry spells," he said.
"The tobacco production sector was not spared as a total of 113 101 ha was planted in comparison to 117 645 ha planted at the same time last year. The negative four percentage variance was because of delayed rains that were received which affected the delayed timing for planting for the dryland crop. The late rains caused a delayed establishment of crops for small-scale farmers who contribute over 70% of the national yield. Consequently, there was a decline in volume produced per hectare.
"For this marketing season, the number of registered growers is 115,114 compared to 148,300 in the prior year. The due diligence undertaken by the Board to ensure compliance with the registration process led to the decline. For this season, the Board has licensed two auction floors, and these are Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF) and Premier Tobacco Auction Floor (PTAF)."
The first bale auctioned was sold at a price of USD4.92/kg up from US$4.20 in 2022.