(NEWZIMBABWE, AFP) Zimbabwe earns $517m from tobacco
Zimbabwe earns $517m from tobacco03/08/2012 00:00:00
by AFP
ZIMBABWE sold over 140 million kilos of tobacco this year earning the country over a half a billion dollars, in the best showing since land reforms began more than a decade ago, officials said Thursday.
Figures released by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board showed the country sold 140.8 million kilos with sales reaching $517 million, surpassing last year's 128 million kilos and $349 million in revenue. The average price per kilo this year was $3.67 compared to last year's $2.71, the board said.
Though the country missed a target of 150 million kilos, tobacco farming is slowly rebounding after years of decline following farm disruptions over the last decade when President Robert Mugabe's government seized white-owned commercial farms to give to blacks.
Production has been rising since 2009, though it remains off a peak in 2000 of 236 million kilos.
Zimbabwe was once the world's biggest tobacco exporter, with sales accounting for 30 percent of exports, but production fell to a low of 55.6 million kilos on 2006, the weakest performance since independence from Britain in 1980.
The sudden collapse of commercial farming caused by the land reforms sent Zimbabwe's already wobbly economy into a tailspin, leading to world-record hyperinflation.
[Bullshit. The collapse of the Zimbabwe Dollar, the turning of a rising trade surplus into a trade deficit, the collapse in tobacco exports did not occur in 2000, when the 'farm invasions' took place, in fact the economy grew in 2000 AND 2001. It only collapsed after the Zimbabwe government was put on a credit freeze, through section 4C of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, which came into force on Jan. 1st 2002. Only in 2002 did the economy collapse.
Oh and by the way, never in the history of economics has land reform led to world record hyperinflation. World record hyperinflation is ALWAYS caused by FINANCIAL MANIPULATION. Weimar's was the Versaille Treaty, Zimbabwe's was the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, sponsored by Bill Frist, co-sponsored by Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Russ Feingold and Jesse Helms. - MrK]
Mugabe has defended the scheme as necessary to redress colonial-era injustices, but the violent campaign had a political colouring linked to deadly attacks against his rivals.
The inflation, believed to have reached multiples of billions in 2008, made it impossible for the new farmers to budget to buy fertilisers and other supplies.
After the government abolished the Zimbabwe dollar and made the US dollar its currency of reference, farm production stabilised and began ticking upward.
Zimbabwe now has four auction floors operating, against just one floor last year.
Tobacco remains Zimbabwe's biggest agricultural export, though mining has overtaken farming as the main foreign currency earner.
Labels: TOBACCO
posted by MrK @ 2:01 PM
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