Story by Owen Mandovha
TOBACCO farmers have raked in more than US$470 million in earnings as the 2024 marketing season reaches the halfway mark.
The 2024 tobacco marketing season entered day 43 this Thursday, with over 135 million kilogrammes having gone under the hammer.
While there’s a slight dip in the average price per kilogramme, dropping from $3.56 to $3.54, the overall sales figures paint a positive picture for the industry.
The positive outlook is further bolstered by the successful hosting of the first-ever World Tobacco Conference held in Africa this week.
Organised by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, the conference brought together international tobacco players with a focus on integrating small-scale farmers into the value-addition chain.
“As small-scale farmers, we have been left out in the tobacco value chain. We think such conferences should give small-scale farmers who are the biggest producers of tobacco a chance to link with international tobacco markets,” says Tobacco Association Zimbabwe president George Seremwe.
The World Tobacco Conference aligns with the government’s Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Strategy, which aims to promote local processing and value addition of Zimbabwean tobacco.
