Harare | Monday
ZIMBABWE’S tobacco production dropped 35,3-million kilos in 2001, to 201,7-million kilos, after last year’s record-high crop, the state-run Herald said on Saturday.
With an average price of 175 Zimbabwe dollars (US$3,18) per kilo, tobacco sales totalled 35-billion Zimbabwe dollars ($630-million) when the auction season closed on Friday, producers said.
Prices were higher than 2000, although the crop was smaller, so on the surface sales rose sharply from last year’s total of $395-million for 237-million kilos.
But because of Zimbabwe’s overvalued currency, officially pegged at 55 to the greenback compared to about 260 to one on the parallel market, tobacco farmers have complained that they are in a financial pinch.
The farmers have to import their supplies — such as fertilizer and equipment — and must source the foreign currency on the parallel rate. When they sell their crops overseas, the government keeps the foreign currency and gives the farmers the equivalent amount at the official rate.
Production costs have shot up 140% since July 2000, according to farmers, much higher than the official rate of inflation at 86,3% in September.
The drop in production is largely because of the violent occupations of white-owned farms since February 2000. The pro-government militants occupying the farms have blocked farmers from working, burned fields and chased away farm workers.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) president Kobus Joubert said in June that it was “nothing short of a miracle” that this year’s crop was so large.
He warned that next year’s crop could be significantly smaller, with seed sales down 22% from the same time last year.
Zimbabwe exports 98% of its crop, which brings in about one-third of the country’s desperately needed foreign exchange, making it the country’s largest earner.
Zimbabwe is the world’s second-largest exporter of tobacco after Brazil, and is one of the top three producers of quality flue-cured Virginia leaf along with the United States and Brazil. – AFP
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