TIMB finds foreign buyer for local burley tobacco
Sunday, 13 January 2013 00:00
Agriculture Reporter
Zimbabwe has secured a foreign buyer for its burley tobacco under a long-term arrangement expected to significantly boost earnings from the crop.The country failed to attract buyers for the tobacco flavour in 2011 while only one buyer purchased the crop from one out of four centres last year.
In an interview last week, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive officer Dr Andrew Matibiri said the board has already licensed the buyer.
Dr Matibiri would not be drawn into revealing the identity of the purchaser but indicated the company was based in Southern Africa.
“Burley tobacco marketing will kick off at the same time as flue-cured tobacco marketing since we have licensed a consistent buyer, who is also a processor,” he said.
“Although the buyer is purchasing our crop, they indicated that their market is interested in burley tobacco that has more nicotine than the one we have in Zimbabwe.
“We hope to work on the crop in future.”
Tobacco Research Board acting general manager Dr Dahlia Garwe said many prospective buyers were interested in the crop.
“We are pleased to have identified buyers in the region who are interested in burley. The demand is so high that we may not be able to meet it,” said Dr Garwe.
“However, our current variety has less nicotine than they require. So, we are researching on how we can increase the nicotine content.
“We also need to come up with a variety that has a stock that is easy to cut from the stem during ripping. This will help growers reduce their labour force.”
Burley is air-cured and survives in dry conditions unlike flue-cured tobacco. The two types of the crop are differentiated by their genetic composition.
In 2011, the TIMB failed to secure a buyer for burley tobacco, resulting in farmers being turned back with their crop.
Last year, production declined drastically after most growers abandoned the flavour.
The country sold only 62 713kg compared to the 426 407kg sold during the same period in 2011.
According to the TIMB, burley tobacco hectarage is expected to increase from 16,7 hectares in the previous season to 144,2 hectares this season.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, TIMB, TOBACCO
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Tobacco hectrage up 38 percent: TIMB
12/01/2013 00:00:00
by Business Reporter
SOME 77,910 hectares of land has been put under tobacco this year,
a 38 percent increase from 56,377 hectares last season, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has revealed.
TIMB chief executive officer Andrew Matibiri said the increase in farm size shows farmers continue to abandon other crops for tobacco. Poor marketing, unattractive prices coupled with late payments to farmers over the years have affected crops such as cotton and maize.
"Farmers who grow rain-fed tobacco are still planting because the rains started late while those who irrigated are reaping and curing their crop," he said.
According to TIMB, more than 65,000 farmers have registered to grow and sell tobacco this season compared 34,673 last season.
Tobacco exports raked in US$771 million averaging US$5,94 per kilogramme, the highest annual average export price achieved since dollarisation.
“There is still a further 95,3 million kilogrammes of tobacco in our stocks so the earnings are set to rise even higher once everything is marketed. The exports have, however, trended down from 17 million kilogrammes in November to seven million kilogrammes in December,” Matibiri said.
“In 2011, a total of 10 million kilogrammes were exported during the same period with the seasonal exports ending with 129,7 million kilogrammes, which is 10 percent below the 2012 levels. More than 42 percent of the tobacco went to China,” Matibiri said.
This year's production is targeted at 170 million kgs.
“Already we have registered 65 199 farmers for this year’s crop compared to last year’s 34 673 farmers during the same period. We have also registered 1 225 farmers for burley tobacco while another 499 have been registered for dark air cured tobacco,” the TIMB chief added.
Tobacco is one of Zimbabwe's major agricultural exports with markets including China, UK, South Africa, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius and Russia.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, TIMB, TOBACCO
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New farmers swell tobacco ranks
25/11/2012 00:00:00
by Roman Moyo
THE Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) says it has
registered more than 62,000 tobacco growers up from the
25,000 in the last season. TIMB Chief Executive Officer Andrew Matibiri said with grower numbers increasing, the focus was on now on improving the quality of the crop.
At least 80 percent of the registered growers are small scale farmers.
“Now that the number of farmers has increased we wish that farmer organisations really work with the growers and that includes us to ensure that farmers do not concentrate on the quantity of the crop but the quality,” said Matibiri.
Matibiri said so far, more than 19,000 hectares of land has been put under tobacco. Prices for the crop in the last season closed 34,2 percent firmer, averaging US$3,69 per kg compared to US$2,75 last year.
The Medium-Term Plan (MTP) had forecasted tobacco output at 180 million kg this year, which could not be achieved due to limited funding among other constraints.
Still, overall sales volumes for the season reached 144million kgs.
Tobacco production has continued to record steady recovery over the years but officials say the industry needs US$200 million in fresh capital to return to peak production levels of 237 million kg recorded in 2000. Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, NEW FARMERS, TIMB, TOBACCO
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WHO threatens tobacco recovery: TIMB
Making their mark ... Thousands of new farmers have joined thte sector
07/11/2012 00:00:00
by The Guardian
THERE is hustle and bustle on the tobacco trading floors of Zimbabwe these days. After a decade of agricultural turmoil that crashed the economy, this seen as one of the few bright spots.
[Actually, 'agricultural turmoil' didn't crash the economy, that were economic sanctions intended to make land reform fail, implemented from 2002 onwards. ZDERA, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001. - MrK]
The crop's value has bounced back from £105m in 2008 to more than £330m this year. Moreover, whereas tobacco production was once dominated by a white elite, now tens of thousands of farmers are black.
[An open admission that land reform was not merely a transfer of land from white estate holders to the political and military elite. In fact over 350,000 new families received land under the Willing Buyer, Willing Seller (159,000) and Fast Track (200,000) land reform programmes. - MrK]
Yet this precious gain is under threat, the industry claims, not from renewed political violence or economic turbulence, but from the global anti-smoking lobby.
[Which I don't disagree with. In fact, tobacco should be replaced by cannabis and hemp as an industry. Getting high in cannabis is good for you, destresses, and is good for your heart and veins. Hemp seed has the highest quality protein and is a health food; cannabis itself should be considered a food group (YOUTUBE), because of all the diseases it prevents. Hemp can drain swamps too. Entire industries can spring up turning hemp fiber into clothes and shoes. Replacing plastic bags with hemp paper bags can end the pollution of the oceans, as there are huge rafts of plastic waste blocking parts of the ocean (see the South Pacific Garbage Patch. See more here (YOUTUBE). - MrK]
"In Zimbabwe we are very dependent on tobacco," says Dr Andrew Matibiri, director of the country's Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
"It makes up 26% of our foreign currency exports. Any movement towards reduction of the exports will affect our economy, especially poverty alleviation."
Growers in Nigeria, Tanzania and other African countries accuse the World Health Organisation (WHO) of cracking down on struggling farmers and putting millions of jobs and livelihoods at risk.
The WHO insists this is a misrepresentation.
It says it is merely issuing guidelines for governments around the world on how to deal with a projected decline in consumer demand. From this point of view, the tobacco industry has set up a straw man so it can take an unaccustomed position of the moral high ground.
Matibiri, who claims to have the backing of both the president, Robert Mugabe, and prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai, argues that more than 70,000 Zimbabwean farmers would suffer immediately under the WHO proposals.
"We say farmers should be allowed to grow tobacco," he says. "It's not illegal. They grow it very quickly and easily; they have been doing it for over a hundred years so there's a lot of knowhow. So far there have been no alternative crops put on the table."
The WHO says tobacco kills almost 6 million people a year. Matibiri does not deny that smoking is harmful, but adds: "We understand all the issues and we agree with them. There are few beneficial consequences of smoking. But we are appealing to the WHO to understand our peculiar position as tobacco producers."
The issue has flared up because the WHO guidelines, known as articles 17 and 18 of the landmark framework convention on tobacco control, will be discussed next week at the Conference of the Parties in Seoul, South Korea. Potential measures include restricting growing periods and the amount of land used for tobacco while encouraging alternative crops.
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In a pre-emptive strike, the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa (Tisa) commissioned a study of 15 regional economies that shows 4.4 million Africans are employed – and 24 million dependent – on a tobacco value chain worth more than $10bn.
In Zimbabwe, according to the research, the industry employs 1.13 million people with 5.67 million dependents and generates $579m in exports. In Malawi, another country with economic woes, tobacco employs 1.4 million people, generates $428.2m in exports, and represents 15% of GDP.
Francois van der Merwe, chief executive of Tisa, said of the WHO: "Their motivation has been the ongoing failure to decrease the demand for tobacco products that has resulted in an ill-conceived attempt to tackle the most vulnerable people in the supply chain, namely farmers.
“Should this ill-advised and misguided proposal [article 17] come into effect, it will have a dire impact on the livelihoods of farmers and tobacco growing countries more broadly."
Tobacco representatives in various African countries have also expressed opposition. Julius Masongo, chairman of thee Tanzania Tobacco Cooperative Apex, said: "The WHO has consistently refused to listen to tobacco growers in drafting the proposal that directly impacts Tanzania's farmers.
“By doing so, they act like a blind man driving a steamroller without paying any attention to the consequences of their folly. Now is the time for governments to act and oppose these draconian measures."
Tobacco growing countries charge that, in its zeal to curtail an industry it regards as evil, the WHO is failing to appreciate the paradox that tobacco throws a lifeline to those who grow it. Unsurprisingly, the WHO has a different view.
It it not issuing orders to anyone, it says, but seeking to help governments that have signed up to the convention to manage what it sees as tobacco's inevitable decline.
Dr Haik Nikogosian, head of the convention secretariat for the framework convention, says: "The document is called 'policy options and recommendations' for governments, not farmers. It's developed to help governments to help farmers transition to alternative crops. The demand for tobacco will gradually diminish: it is clearly known. People will not be smoking tobacco in 200 years.
"It's not asking farmers to do anything. It doesn't have any deadlines or requirements. It's advice and guidelines, and should be seen in a positive light. The WHO wouldn't involve itself in agricultural business in that negative way. This is about supporting farmers, not restricting them."
Asked about the vitriol being poured on the WHO, Nikogosian says: "I'd be surprised if it only comes from the tobacco growing organisations. There are other organisations and forces that are not to be trusted in giving information. If you look at the value chain and the profits, they are not sitting with the farmers. You can see where the interests are."
Labels: 2007 BUDGET, ANDREW MATIBIRI, TIMB, TOBACCO, WHO
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Tobacco exports to China top US$40m
24/10/2012 00:00:00
by Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE exported tobacco worth US$40 million to China, representing about 40 percent of the overall crop produced this year, the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TMB) revealed this week.
TIMB chief executive Andrew Matibiri said exports to China attracted average prices of US$8.60 per kilogramme which was significantly better than the US$7.28 price achieved in 2011 when the country exported 57 million kgs.
“Our tobacco continues to be in demand the world over. China is not alone in the pursuit of our tobacco. This is so because of its good smoking flavour and very few cigarette brands globally are made without Zimbabwean components," said Matibiri.
Zimbabwe earned US$525 million for 144 million kgs of tobacco this season, a 46 percent increase from last year's US$360 million.
Overall output missed the 150 million kgs production target for the just ended season but tobacco farming continues to rebound after years of decline.
South Africa is the leading consumer of local tobacco in the region, importing 12 million kg last year and another 7 million kg this year. Elsewhere on the continent, Sudan imported one million kg last year and two million kg so far this year from Zimbabwe.
TIMB said Japan was offering the highest price for tobacco from Zimbabwe for the 2012 season at US$10,63 per kg. Britain, Belgium and the United Arab Emirates have also shown great interest in local tobacco, with the UK buying ten million kg last season and 11 million kg so far this year.
The UAE has so far imported five million kg from Zimbabwe, eight million kg shy of the figure it imported last season. Belgium last year imported nine million kg of local tobacco and has so far imported seven million kg.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, CHINA, TOBACCO
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COMMENT - A rather schizoid article from the New York Times. They are trying to adjust the narrative, instead of going to the facts and the truth right away.
In Zimbabwe Land Takeover, a Golden Lining
Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
By LYDIA POLGREEN
Published: July 20, 2012
HARARE, Zimbabwe — When Roger Boka started his auction business in the 1990s, this city’s tobacco trading floors were hushed places, save the mellifluous patter of the auctioneer. A handful of white farmers, each selling hundreds of bales of tobacco, arrived in sport utility vehicles, checking into the city’s best hotels while waiting for their big checks to be cut.
During this year’s auction season, a very different scene unfolded underneath the cavernous roof of the Bock Tobacco Auction Floors. Each day, hundreds of farmers arrived in minibuses and on the backs of pickup trucks, many with wives and children in tow. They camped in open fields nearby and swarmed to the cacophonous floor to sell their crop. The place was lively and crowded; two women gave birth on the auction floor. The most obvious difference, though, was the color of their faces: every single one of them was black.
“You used to only see white faces here,” said Rudo Boka, Mr. Boka’s daughter, who now runs the family business. “Now it is for everybody. It is a beautiful sight.”
Before Zimbabwe’s government began the violent and chaotic seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, fewer than 2,000 farmers were growing tobacco, the country’s most lucrative crop, and most were white. Today, 60,000 farmers grow tobacco here, the vast majority of them black and many of them working small plots that were allotted to them in the land upheavals. Most had no tobacco farming experience yet managed to produce a hefty crop, rebounding from a low of 105 million pounds in 2008 to more than 330 million pounds this year.
[Gee, I wonder how that's possible. Are you sure they had no experience growing tobacco? - MrK]
The success of these small-scale farmers has led some experts to reassess the legacy of Zimbabwe’s forced land redistribution, even as they condemn its violence and destruction.
[Much of the destruction was done by the white farmers themselves, so the New Farmers couldn't make a go of it. Read Prof. Scoones book. - MrK]
The takeover of white commercial farms was a disaster for Zimbabwe on many levels. It undermined one of Africa’s sturdiest economies, and as growth contracted and its currency became worthless because of hyperinflation, joblessness and hunger grew. Large chunks of land were handed to cronies of President Robert Mugabe, many of whom did not farm them.
[Proof? Because it is now generally recognized that most land went to small farmers, which is how over 200,000 families could received land under the Fast Track program. - MrK]
It spurred a political crisis and violent reprisals by the security forces that have killed hundreds of people. Yields on food and cash crops plummeted.
[Actually the biggest damage was done by the destruction of the Zimbabwe Dollar through ZDERA. - MrK]
But amid that pain, tens of thousands of people got small farm plots under land reform,
[Hundreds of thousands - of families. Well over a million people if you count their wifes and children. - MrK]
and in recent years many of these new farmers overcame early struggles to fare pretty well.
[They've overcame the destruction of the national currency. If you look at the 2 years preceding the introduction of ZDERA on Jan. 1st 2002, exports actually grew in 2000 and 2001. It is only in 2002 that they cratered. Section 4C of ZDERA puts a credit freeze on the Zimbabwean government. Business is done on credit, and the year ZDERA came into force (2002), the rising export surplus turned into an export deficit. - MrK]
With little choice but to work the land, the small-scale farmers have made a go of it, producing yields that do not match those of the white farmers whose land they were given, but are far from the disaster many anticipated, some analysts and scholars say.
“We cannot make excuses for the way it was carried out,” said Ian Scoones, an expert on farming at the University of Sussex who has been intensively studying land reform in Zimbabwe for the past decade. “But there are many myths that have taken hold — that land reform has been an unmitigated disaster, that all the land has been taken over by cronies in the ruling party, that the whole thing has been a huge mess. It has not. Nor has it been a roaring success.”
The result has been a broad, if painful, shift of wealth in agriculture from white commercial growers on huge farms to black farmers on much smaller plots of land.
[I would't call 50 hectares 'a small plot' by any measure. The average farm in the EU is 90 hectares. Before landreform, the average white 'farm' (estate) was 2500 hectares. - MrK]
Last year, these farmers shared $400 million worth of tobacco, according to the African Institute for Agrarian Studies, earning on average $6,000 each, a vast sum to most Zimbabweans.
[Now you know why people in Africa are poor, and what to do about it. - MrK]
“The money that was shared between 1,500 large-scale growers is now shared with 58,000 growers, most of them small scale,” said Andrew Matibiri, the director of Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board. “That is a major change in the country.”
The new farmers are receiving virtually no assistance from the government, which for years poured money into larger farms given to politically connected elites.
[If you can prove that, go ahead. However, the reason the government isn't giving more support to the New Farmers is not because they are elitists and don't want them to succeed, but because they are under economic sanctions like the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001, S.494 of the 107th US Senate, sponsored by Bill Frist, co-sponsored by Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Russ Feingold and Jesse Helms. - MrK]
Instead, farmers are getting help from the tobacco industry, in the form of loans, advances and training. It is in Ms. Boka’s interest to revive the industry, so the company has invested heavily in helping farmers improve the yields and quality.
Tobacco is a tricky crop, requiring precise application of fertilizer and careful reaping. It must then be cured and graded properly to fetch a top price.
[It's a green leafy plant (that doesn't even need to be flowered). If you think it is difficult to grow, check out the following http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk0isOfDGSQ
Recently, Alex Vokoto, head of public relations at the auction house, spotted several bales of desirable tobacco leaves cured to a honey color on the floor, and hustled the man who grew them, Stuart Mhavei, into the V.I.P. lounge for a cup of coffee and a chat.
“This man is growing top-quality tobacco, and he has only been at it for three years,” Mr. Vokoto said.
Mr. Mhavei, a 40-year-old tile layer, got a small piece of a tobacco farm several years ago in the town of Centenary in central Mashonaland, about 80 miles from Harare.
“All the big guys who got land, they are doing nothing,” Mr. Vokoto said. “But these small guys are working hard and really producing.”
Mr. Mhavei has steadily increased his yield, quality and income. So far this season, he has earned more than $10,000 on part of a vast farm that once belonged to a white family, investing the profits in a truck to transport his tobacco, as well as renting the truck to other farmers.
Mr. Mhavei said that like many of the other people who got land, he supports Mr. Mugabe and his party, ZANU-PF.
“Why should one white man have all this?” he asked, sweeping an arm across the lush, rolling farmland around his fields. “This is Zimbabwe. Black people must come first.”
Charles Taffs, president of the Commercial Farmers Union, said that the industry could have been transformed to include more black farmers in a much less destructive way.
“The tragedy with tobacco is that expansion, if they had the right policies, could have been done in the 1990s in conjunction with the commercial sector,” Mr. Taffs said. Instead, hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their jobs and the country has suffered huge economic losses as a result.
The personal cost for white commercial farmers has been immense. One white tobacco farmer in northern Zimbabwe whose family purchased its land after independence described the slow, painful erosion of his family’s livelihood.
“Now that we are down to less than 200 hectares, there isn’t enough income to support everyone,” said the farmer, who asked not to be identified because he feared seizure of even more land if he spoke out. A plot of 200 hectares is less than 500 acres.
His brother had to leave the farm to find work elsewhere, and his own future was deeply uncertain. The farm employs far fewer workers. Yields are down since critical investments in irrigation and other infrastructure have been put off, he said.
“We are Zimbabweans,” the farmer said. “We employ people, and take care of our workers. It is really painful to see this happening to our country.”
The tobacco yield is still below its peak in 2000, when the crop hit 522 million pounds. But Tendai Murisa, a researcher who has studied tobacco farming since land reform, said that judging the success of land reform by looking at production figures misses a crucial point.
“No one ever argued that this is a more productive form of farming,” Mr. Murisa said. “But does it share wealth more equitably? Does it give people a sense of dignity and ownership? Those things have value, too.”
A version of this article appeared in print on July 21, 2012, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Zimbabwe Land Takeover, a Golden Lining.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, LAND REFORM, TOBACCO
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Tobacco sales to surpass target, TIMB
17/07/2012 00:00:00
by Roman Moyo
THE Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has said tobacco deliveries for the 2012 surpassed the revised target of 133 million kgs two weeks before the close of the marketing season.
The initial output target of 180 million kgs was revised downwards early this year following a decline in the planted hectarage caused by lack of funding. But TIMB chief executive officer Andrew Matibiri said the board was set to revise next year’s target upwards ahead of the close of the marketing season.
“This shows that tobacco is still coming through. We have an idea on how much we are to revise upwards as the tobacco season ends on July 27 2012,” Matibiri said.
Latest figures from TIMB show that 134 million kg of tobacco valued at US$496,3 million was delivered to the country’s auction floors as of Friday, a 45 per cent increase on the US$343 million recorded during the same period last year.
Meanwhile, in a circular to farmers, the TIMB said the flue-cured auction tobacco clean-up sales would be held on Wednesday July 22.
“Depending on the volume of deliveries, the clean-up sale may be continued for more than one day until all delivered tobacco has been sold,” the Board said.
“Because of the volumes that are still being received, contract sales will continue until further notice. Nonetheless, contracted growers are advised to finalise the grading and marketing of their tobacco.”
Tobacco production has been recovering over the last few years after collapsing at the start of the last decade as the sector adjusted to changes following the country’s land reform programme.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, TOBACCO
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Farmers cry foul over transport fares
Wednesday, 18 April 2012 00:00
Obert Chifamba Senior Agriculture Reporter
TOBACCO farmers yesterday accused transporters of charging exorbitant fares to ferry tobacco to the auction floors. Farmers at the auction floors said the transporters were taking advantage of their desperation to demand unrealistic charges.
“Can you believe that we are paying US$25 per bale regardless of its size and weight.
Transporters really know that when we have baled our tobacco we can no longer keep it at our homes so they adopt a ‘take or leave it’ attitude,” a farmer from Hurungwe in Mashonaland West said.
Another farmer from Chundu area in Hurungwe said the transporters, especially those with seven or nine tonne trucks were making a killing out of the farmers.
“They can carry between 100 and 125 bales per trip and if you do your calculations correctly you can see that they make a lot more than the tobacco farmers when the season finally ends,” he said.
“If you buy a cart and want to ferry it back home they are charging US$130, while for a wardrobe they demand US$50, a bed attracts US$15 with a grinding mill attracting US$100 while for a bag of fertiliser they charge US$6.”
Farmers from Mutorashanga said they were paying US$20 per bale while those from Nyazura and surrounding areas said transporters were demanding between US$12 and US$20 for a single bale.
One farmer Mr Onisimo Kureva said it would make sense if transporters just asked for a cover charge for a trip and not charge unit by unit, which was making it very expensive.
Most of the farmers agreed that a charge of between US$8 and US$10 per bale was reasonable and would leave them with a significant percentage of their revenue.
“Transporters also charge US$10 for the farmer to accompany his produce when we expected them to at least be compassionate and allow the farmer to be covered by the charges paid for the load.
“Some of the transporters are even in the habit of inflating their charges when they get here and you will be surprised when the deductions done through stop orders indicate that the transporter got more than you had agreed on,” he added.
The majority of the transporters present at the floors were not willing to talk to the Press.
However, there was one who gathered his nerve and defended their actions saying they were only charging what would enable them to maintain their vehicles on the road.
“Most of the roads in the farming communities are very bad and there is a lot of wear and tear that the vehicle picks so if we charge peanuts we will not remain in business,” he said.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri confirmed hearing complaints over transporters’ atrocious charges.
He urged farmers to be organised and work as groups when negotiating with the transporters.
“I think farmers’ unions too must assist the farmers in securing transporters who are genuine and not leave them at the mercy of mercenaries who only want to bleed the farmers.
“The disappointing thing is that most of the farmers that are falling victim to these unscrupulous transporters do not even want to come into the open and complain. Maybe they fear reprisals back home so they suffer silently,” Dr Matibiri said.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, ANDREW MATIBIRI, TRANSPORT
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Tobacco output to increase 15 percent
07/02/2012 00:00:00
by
TOBACCO output is expected to increase by nearly 15 percent this year to reach 150,000 tonnes, an official said on Tuesday, predicting good returns for farmers.
"The target for this year is 150 million kilogrammes," Monica Chinamasa, chairwoman of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board told lawmakers ahead of the start of the tobacco selling season next week.
The board's chief executive Andrew Matibiri said farmers would benefit from the slump in output in Brazil and the United States due to floods, with the market about 5-10 percent short of tobacco.
"This year is going to be favourable for growers," Matibiri said.
Last year's output was at 131 million kilogrammes.
Tobacco is Zimbabwe's major foreign currency earner, accounting for more that 50 percent of agricultural exports.
Output is slowly improving, following a decline prompted by President Robert Mugabe's land reforms which he said were meant to address colonial imbalances between white landowners and the black majority.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, TOBACCO
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11 000ha of tobacco put under irrigation
Friday, 25 November 2011 00:00
At least 11 000 hectares of irrigable land has so far been put under tobacco for this agricultural season, an official said on Wednesday. Last season, 52 000 farmers registered to produce tobacco on 65 000 hectares, 13 000 hectares of which was under irrigation.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive officer Dr Andrew Matibiri told New Ziana much of the crop would be planted as soon as the country began receiving rains. "Most of the planting will start this week since the country has begun receiving rains," he said.
The bulk of Zimbabwe's tobacco is grown under rainfed agriculture.
Tobacco farming has attracted more farmers in the past two years due to the multiple currencies.
Analysts have tipped tobacco production to increase on the back of attractive prices and orderly marketing. Zimbabwe is the world's sixth largest exporter of the flue-cured Virginia tobacco after Brazil, India, the United States, Argentina and Tanzania.
More than 120 million kilogrammes of tobacco were sold last season with the contract system contributing the bulk of the sales.
The country is determined to return to the peak production levels of more than 200 million kg reached in the late 1990s before Western countries imposed economic sanctions which saw most sectors going on a free fall. Last season the industry had projected an output of 77 million kilogrammes to go under the hammer but this was later revised twice, first to 93 million kg and then 114 million kg.
An estimated 250 000 people are directly employed in the production of tobacco.
- New Ziana.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, IRRIGATION, TOBACCO
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Burley tobacco sales up 90pc
Monday, 31 October 2011 00:00
Agriculture Reporter
BURLEY tobacco sales have surpassed last season sales by 90 percent, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board has revealed. TIMB statistics released recently showed that a total of
260 812 kilogrammes of burley have been sold compared to
25 646kg that were sold same period last year.
This year, prices have declined as the leaf has been sold at an average price of
US$1,31 per kilogramme while same period last year, buyers were offering
US$2,62 per kilogramme. Burley tobacco growers had been finding difficulties selling their crop during the tobacco-marketing period.
This was attributed to lack of cash on the part of processing companies.
TIMB chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said some processing companies did not have the capacity to buy burley tobacco in bulk.
Meanwhile, 3 005 grammes of burley tobacco seed, equivalent to 500 hectares, have been sold so far as preparations for the next season continue in earnest.
Tobacco production has been on the increase for the past few years due to the attractive prices being offered on the market.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, TOBACCO
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Farmers ditch maize for tobacco
27/10/2011 00:00:00
by IRIN
SMALE-SCALE farmers are favouring tobacco over maize because they are paid immediately on delivery, while the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) often takes months to pay for the staple, say some small-scale farmers.
The country has suffered consistent bouts of food insecurity since 2000 after the government implemented its fast track land reform which saw thousands of white farmers displaced, often violently, to make way for landless black Zimbabweans.
Tobacco production - a major foreign currency earner - plummeted from 237 million kg in 2000 to 49 million kilograms in 2008.
Production has since recovered and the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) said 132 million kg was auctioned in 2011.
The profile of tobacco farmers has changed in the last decade. Prior to 2000, 1,500 of the then about 4,500 commercial farmers produced 97 percent of the tobacco delivered to sales floors, while other commercial farmers generally shunned maize production because of price controls - which remain - and opted for cash crops such as paprika, cut flowers and cotton, while growing yellow maize for stock feed.
Cereal production for food security before 2000 was largely the domain of small farmers who benefited from the sophisticated agricultural input system which supported commercial farmers and were able to easily source cheap fertiliser and seeds. The disruption of commercial farming activities also saw the collapse of the country’s agricultural industry.
ZTA's chief executive officer, Rodney Ambrose, told IRIN 67,000 tobacco growers - resettled on former white farmland - registered in 2011, of which only about 17,000 were considered large growers, including 300 white farmers still active in the sector, and that by and large the quality of tobacco delivered to the auction floors was “very good”.
Samuel Chizemo, a new tobacco farmer in Karoi about 150km north of Harare, told IRIN more farmers were opting to grow tobacco in place of maize, because of GMB delays in payment, although some was grown for personal consumption.
“Tobacco is a cash crop and unlike other crops which are delivered to the GMB we get paid cash on delivery,” he said and estimated he earned about US$8,000 from his tobacco crop this year and was paid promptly.
Some farmers, he said, were forced to sell the maize to third parties at a lower price than the controlled price of US$285 a ton, so it was the middlemen that profited from the grain, who could afford to wait for payment from the marketing board.
The USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said in its September 2011 factsheet that about 1.68 million people would require emergency food assistance during the lean season, from January to April 2012. This was a 12 percent decline from the previous year for the same period.
Chizemo is one of 36 small-scale farmers working six hectare divisions of formerly white-owned farmland which was redistributed in 2001. They are all cultivating tobacco as contract farmers.
This year the average price of tobacco per kg was $2.73, slightly lower than the previous year of US$2.89.
Hard beginnings
Initially, Zimbabwe’s hyperinflationary environment - which was effectively ended through the scrapping of the local currency and its replacement in 2009 with the US dollar, Botswana pula and South African rand - financial difficulties, and the farmers’s inexperience of growing and curing tobacco hamstrung their first attempts in 2003.
“Besides us not having the know-how, it is a very expensive crop to grow,” Chizemo said.
Irrigation systems were also removed by the evicted farmer, which limited the area under cultivation, as the new farmers had to carry drums of water from a nearby river to ensure the crops did not wither in the early stages.
The refusal of banks to grant loans to the new farmers because of concerns over the security of land ownership saw the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) petition President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF government in 2004 to permit tobacco companies to offer farmers contracts whereby the necessary inputs, such as fertilizer and chemicals, were provided ahead of the planting season.
Under the contract agreement the farmers must sell to an agreed auctioneer until they have paid the loan for the inputs and are then free to sell the surplus to whoever they choose.
New farmers were also offered advice, assisted in the paying of wage bills and in some cases supplied with food. However, it was the scrapping of the local currency, which saw tobacco's renaissance.
“Tobacco growing is making a big difference to our lives,” Thomas Gwata, 28, from the Nyazura area east of Harare, who started tobacco farming in 2006 on a formerly white-owned farm that was subdivided among 65 small farmers, who made thousands of dollars from this year’s crop.
The farmers also lack access to a curing facility.
“The farmer who took over the farm infrastructure does not allow us to use the [curing] barn as he says it’s on his land,” he told IRIN.
“He is a cellphone farmer”, a term describing new farmers who received land, but are employed elsewhere and conduct their farming activities by calling their workers on cellphones.
Gwata and his fellow small-scale farmers built their own curing barn, but it was not as efficient as the barn constructed by the former white farmer.
Tree-felling
Without a coal supplier the tobacco farmers have resorted to tree-felling to get fuel for tobacco curing. “This is causing serious deforestation but we really do not have a choice,” he said.
“We have the land but we are not benefiting enough; agriculture is the driver of our economy so government should seriously look into putting money into the sector,” said Gwata. That may not happen any time soon though as the government remains cash-strapped.
TIMB chief executive officer Andrew Matibiri said the new farmers had also yet to come to grips with the tobacco industry systems, including notification of how much of the product they intended to grow.
“Some farmers are not aware of this and just bring their crop to the already overcrowded three auction floors in Harare which were designed for 4,000 growers,” he said.
However, Matibiri said the sector was being rejuvenated.
“Besides earning the country much needed foreign currency, tobacco is now benefiting thousands of families rather than the small minority who grew it before.”
He forecast that tobacco production could grow to 350 million kg annually in three to four years - provided there was adequate financial support - thanks to demand from the European Union and China, which each purchase about 40 percent of the country's tobacco crop.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, GRAIN MARKETING BOARD ZIMBABWE, MAIZE, NEW FARMERS, TOBACCO, ZTA
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Tobacco clean up sales start Tuesday
Friday, 16 September 2011 02:00
Obert Chifamba Agriculture Reporter
TOBACCO mop up sales will start on September 20, 2011 and run until all the tobacco delivered to the floors this year has been sold. Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri yesterday said the mop up sales would be conducted at all floors.
He urged farmers who still had undelivered tobacco to take advantage of that window period. "There are chances that there are farmers who may still be holding on to their tobacco for unknown reasons or after facing challenges in beating the dates for the closing of the marketing season.
"It is such farmers who should now deliver their produce without fail," said Dr Matibiri.
In a related development, burley tobacco sales will also be conducted at Boka Tobacco Floors every Tuesday.
A total of 131 million kilogrammes of flue cured tobacco with a value of US$358m were sold at the country's four tobacco floors this year.
TIMB and other stakeholders in the tobacco industry had estimated that more than 170 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf would go under the hammer this year.
Dr Matibiri also took the opportunity to warn farmers against leaving tobacco stalks in their fields saying the deadline for stalk destruction was May 15.
There should be a dead period during which there is no tobacco or any crop related to tobacco growing in the field after one tobacco crop is harvested to break pest and disease cycles.
Meanwhile, planting of the 2011/12 irrigated tobacco got underway last week on Thursday amid indications that there may be a bigger hectarage this time around compared to last season.
"Most big farmers have indicated that they intend to increase their hectarage this season. There is still a lot of excitement about the crop and so far the number of farmers who have registered to grow the crop has doubled what we had at the same period last season," he said.
He added that from the look of things, only a quarter of the farmers expected to grow tobacco this year has registered.
TIMB would soon make the figures available, said Dr Matibiri.
"The deadline for registration is October 31 so farmers must make sure they register within the intervening days to avoid the last minute rush that has over the years seen some growing the crop without
growers' numbers," added Dr Matibiri.
TIMB has also decentralised the registration process to all tobacco growing districts to help farmers cut on travel costs.
For inputs, farmers should deal with their contractors or banks so that they get into the season adequately prepared, said Dr Matibiri.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, TOBACCO
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Tobacco season ends
Saturday, 13 August 2011 22:24 Agriculture
Agriculture Editor
TOBACCO farmers have been urged to complete their grading as well as baling before the closure of the auction floors on Thursday this week.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said the final day for the 2011 flue-cured tobacco sales is Thursday, August 18. Dr Matibiri said the last deliveries should be made on Wednesday for the Thursday sales to take place.
He said all growers should, therefore, complete their grading and baling operations well before the final sales day.
“TIMB advises that the final day of 2011 flue-cured tobacco auction sales is Thursday, 18th August, 2011, with final deliveries being accepted on Wednesday, 17th August, 2011,” said Dr Matibiri.
He said while this Thursday would be the final sales day, a clean-up sale would be held on September 20.
Dr Matibiri said depending on the volume of deliveries, the clean-up sales could continue until all the delivered tobacco was sold.
He, however, pointed out that the selling of contracted tobacco would continue until further notice.
With the country’s tobacco selling season coming to an end, a total of 129,5 million kg of the flue-cured crop valued at US$355, 5 million has gone under the hammer at the country’s three auction floors since the beginning of the selling season in February.
According to TIMB, this year’s deliveries were 11,79 percent more than the 115,8 million kg (valued at US$338,2 million) sold in the same period last year.
This year’s average selling price was US$2,75 per kg while last year’s average price was US$2,92 a kg.
Preparations for the 2011/12 season have started with seedlings for the irrigated crop already on the ground.
Planting of the irrigated crop starts in October while dryland planting begins in November.
There are more than 65 000 growers registered for the 2011/12 season compared to 52 000 last season.-The Sunday Mail
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, TOBACCO
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Tobacco season ends
Saturday, 13 August 2011 22:24
Agriculture Editor
TOBACCO farmers have been urged to complete their grading as well as baling before the closure of the auction floors on Thursday this week. Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said the final day for the 2011 flue-cured tobacco sales is Thursday, August 18.
Dr Matibiri said the last deliveries should be made on Wednesday for the Thursday sales to take place. He said all growers should, therefore, complete their grading and baling operations well before the final sales day.
“TIMB advises that the final day of 2011 flue-cured tobacco auction sales is Thursday, 18th August, 2011, with final deliveries being accepted on Wednesday, 17th August, 2011,” said Dr Matibiri.
He said while this Thursday would be the final sales day, a clean-up sale would be held on September 20.
Dr Matibiri said depending on the volume of deliveries, the clean-up sales could continue until all the delivered tobacco was sold.
He, however, pointed out that the selling of contracted tobacco would continue until further notice.
With the country’s tobacco selling season coming to an end, a total of 129,5 million kg of the flue-cured crop valued at US$ 355.5 million has gone under the hammer at the country’s three auction floors since the beginning of the selling season in February.
According to TIMB, this year’s deliveries were 11,79 percent more than the 115,8 million kg (valued at US$338,2 million) sold in the same period last year.
This year’s average selling price was US$2,75 per kg while last year’s average price was US$2,92 a kg.
Preparations for the 2011/12 season have started with seedlings for the irrigated crop already on the ground.
Planting of the irrigated crop starts in October while dryland planting begins in November.
There are more than 65 000 growers registered for the 2011/12 season compared to 52 000 last season.-The Sunday Mail
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, TOBACCO
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Millenium Tobacco holds inaugural sale
Thursday, 07 April 2011 22:11
Agriculture Reporters
VICE President Joice Mujuru joins the Mbare Chimurenga Choir on the dance floor at a field day held at Mapunga Farm in Bindura yesterday. The farm is owned by Zanu-PF Mashonaland Central provincial chairman Cde Dickson Mafios.MILLENIUM Tobacco Auction Floors held its first tobacco sale in Harare on Wednesday with prices ranging from US$0,80 to US$4,50 per kg. MTF chairman, Mr Hillary Mombeshora, said the quality of the leaf was good especially as most of the first bales sold were from seasoned commercial farmers.
"There is a blend of commercial, communal and small-scale farmers coming here but the quality is very good," he said.
By 9am, 1 903 bales had already been sold and farmers interviewed said they were happy with the prices and the service.
"The prices are good though there is need for the lowest grade to fetch at least a dollar or slightly above to allow the farmer to at least salvage something," a farmer from Hurungwe said.
Mr Mombeshora, however, indicated that prices were bound to firm as more deliveries came in.
"At the moment, we are holding a single sale of 3 600 bales per day while we put final touches to all the facilities on the premises. We will increase the tonnage gradually," he said.
"At the moment the receiving system is being run manually, which is slowing the process a bit but will soon be automated," said MTF marketing director Ms Kudzai Hamadziripi.
She said once everything was in place, they had the capacity to handle more than one auction per day. There are 13 buyers at the floor. Ms Hamadziripi said they were strict on bookings and always made sure that every farmer brought in booked tobacco.
"TIMB charges a penalty of US$20 for every bale that passes the auction floors without being booked and that charge comes to us so we make it a point that we encourage all farmers to pre-book their tobacco.
"There is a TIMB satellite office here where they can make bookings before auctioning," she said.
She also added that MTF had built 20 toilets at the floor while banks such as CBZ, ZABG, Kingdom and Trust are available on the premises to assist farmers get their cash immediately after selling their crop.
"We also have running showers, a canteen and tent for those farmers sleeping over before selling their tobacco," she said.
TIMB chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said the opening of MTF would go a long way towards easing congestion at the country's three other auction floors - Boka Tobacco Floors, Tobacco Sales Floor and Tian Ze.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, JOICE MUJURU, TOBACCO
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Chinese buyers boost tobacco prices
by NewZiana
23/02/2011 00:00:00
THE entry of Chinese buyers has pushed up tobacco prices and spurred competition after breaking up cartels which used to control the sector, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) chief executive officer Andrew Matibiri has said.
Speaking before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Water, Lands and Resettlement on Tuesday, Matibiri said prices of tobacco continued to firm at the auction floors, largely propelled by growing Chinese demand.
He said the entry of Chinese buyers had been a boon for the tobacco sector, consuming about 40 per cent of the total output last year. "Of the tobacco sold, 40 per cent is going to China, another 40 (per cent) to Europe and the remainder to other parts of the world," he said.
Before the arrival of the Chinese, US$2.99 per kilogramme was the ceiling," he added.
Tobacco is presently fetching an average price of US$3.57 per kg. China is purchasing the crop through the China Tobacco Company, represented in Zimbabwe by Tian Ze.
"Farmers are responding positively and the prices have been favourable mostly attributable to the presence of the Chinese," Matibiri said.
Previously a preserve of White minority farmers, tobacco farming has fast become a favourite of the new indigenous farmers who are beneficiaries of the government's land reforms.
About 60,000 farmers are expected to deliver their crop for sale at the two auction floors this year.
Matibiri said prospects were high that prices would continue to firm.
"We are still in the early days in the marketing season and we expect prices to rise as we get to the upper leaves," he said.
Since the marketing season opened last week, tobacco worth more than US$175 million has been exported.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, CHINA, TOBACCO
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Moves to decentralise tobacco auction floors hit brick wall
New Ziana.
NO investors have expressed interest in building tobacco auction floors outside the capital, slowing down efforts to decentralise the crop’s marketing system, an official said on Friday.
Challenges hindering the smooth marketing of the "golden leaf" have largely been attributed to the current centralised auction system.
Both of the country’s auction floors are in Harare, a situation which has resulted in farmers scattered across the country incurring high transport costs ferrying their crop.
TIMB chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri told New Ziana that decentralising the tobacco floors required a huge capital outlay.
"We have not had any investor willing to put up auction floors outside Harare.
"If there is no money, there is little that we can do. All the floors in the country were built by private investors," he said.
Dr Matibiri said TIMB had since submitted an advisory report to Government on the feasibility of establishing more auction floors.
"By next year some aspects of the auction system would have been decentralised," he said.
TIMB has been opening up more registration offices countrywide to ensure that farmers easily register their crop ahead of the selling season, he said.
"We have been opening up offices outside Harare which will start operating in earnest next year. So far we have covered Rusape, Marondera, Mvurwi and Chinhoyi with plans underway to open more sub-offices. We want to be closer to the farmers," said Dr Matibiri.
Meanwhile, Dr Matibiri said the new cropping season was "going on very well", adding that farmers were buoyed by the various support schemes provided by a number of unions.
"The mood among growers is high, there are wide chances that output will surpass the 120 million kilogrammes realised last year," he said. — New Ziana.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, DECENTRALIZATION, TOBACCO
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COMMENT - The author means pre-2002 levels. According to the FAO/WFP, the first year tobacco declined was in 2002. (Tobacco (US$ m) 2000 (548.8) 2001 (594.1)
2002 (434.6) 2003 (321.3). See:
Table 1: Zimbabwe - Key economic indicators, 2000–2007)
Bumper tobacco crop projected
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
05/12/2010 00:00:00
ZIMBABWE’S tobacco production is inching towards the pre-2000 peak levels with industry officials projecting output to jump 38 percent to 170 million kilogrammes in the next cropping season.
The country produced 123 million kilogrammes in the last season but the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) has said output should increase to 170 million kilogrammes with more farmers expected to join the sector.
50 000 farmers made deliveries to the country’s auction floors in the just ended season and the TIMB said it expects an additional 10 000 producers to join the sector.
“Indications are that the 2011 tobacco season will be successful because the number of growers has increased,” TIMB chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said.
“Last year, we had 50 000 growers and we are expecting that figure to increase to 60 000.”
The organization said a significant number of farmers were expected to switch from cotton to tobacco production in the new season while others in non-traditional tobacco growing areas were also trying the ‘golden leaf’.
“We have also witnessed that some farmers in areas like the Zambezi have expressed interest in growing the crop this year even though the climatic conditions in such areas are considered unfavourable for the crop,” Matibiri said.
Zimbabwe used to be one of the world’s leading tobacco producers with output topping 227 million tones between 1998 and 2000.
However, re-organisation of the country’s farming sector in the wake of the government’s controversial land reforms compounded by often-inclement weather conditions saw production decline significantly over the decade.
Labels: ANDREW MATIBIRI, TOBACCO
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