(Ecofin Agency) - Zimbabwe expects to produce 200, 000 tons of tobacco during the current season (2017-18), the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) announced yesterday March 21. This volume is slightly above (+5.8%) the 189, 000 tons produced last season and remains close to the volume reached (198, 000 tons) in the early 2000s.

This result is due to the investments consented towards the producers by the companies active in the sector these past five years despite the deterioration of the national economic situation.  

  “Government appreciates the coming on board of the tobacco contracting companies where they financed 82 percent of the crop in the 2017/18 agricultural season,” Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said.

According to the official, the government plans to extend the contract farming model to other crops such as soybean and wheat in order to solve farmers’ difficulties to buy inputs (seed, fertilizer, and pesticides).

 Let’s recall that between May 2016 and December 2017, Zimbabwe generated nearly $1.2 billion from tobacco exports which was the second export earner after gold.

Espoir Olodo