Production of Zimbabwe’s key foreign currency earner, tobacco, is expected to decline by around half against the quantity produced last year, according to a crop report released on Thursday.
The report by the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) estimates this year’s tobacco crop is unlikely to exceed 85 million kilograms, compared to 165 million kilograms in 2002.
The reasons the association gives for lower production include critical shortages of inputs such as chemicals and fertiliser, as well as shortages of coal and diesel needed for curing and transporting the crop.
The association said the uncertainty in the farming community caused by the government’s ”continuing acquisition of large-scale farms” under its land reform programme was another inhibiting factor.
”Prevailing conditions at the moment are not conducive to
continued large-scale tobacco cropping,” said the report.
According to the ZTA, tobacco usually earns about 31% of the country’s foreign currency. – Sapa-AFP