Zimbabwe has had to revise down this season’s tobacco production target to just 70-million kilograms, one of its lowest harvests to date, the state-controlled Herald reported on Thursday.
The low yields are being blamed on ”late disbursements of funds and shortage of inputs,” the paper said.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) had initially announced that it expected a harvest of 160-million kilograms.
”It is not yet clear how much would be produced this season but preliminary assessment[s] have put the total amount at between 60 and 70-million kilograms,” TIMB chairperson Njodzi Machirori told the paper.
”Most of our farmers received funds in December, causing delays for those who wanted to grow dryland tobacco in September,” he added.
Machirori said critical shortages of coal were hampering the curing of tobacco that had been planted early, and pleaded for other stakeholders to ”come in to alleviate the problems that farmers are facing”.
Tobacco used to be Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign currency earner, supplying up to 40% of its foreign currency receipts. In 1999, one year before the launch of the government’s controversial land seizures, Zimbabwe produced 250-million kilograms of tobacco.
Last season the figure was 74-million kilograms, the Herald said. – Sapa-DPA