ZAMBIA LOSES REVENUE IN RAW TOBACCO EXPORTS

ZAMBIA is losing revenue and thousands of jobs through exporting of unprocessed tobacco because the country is lacks processing and manufacturing facilities, Tobacco Board of Zambia (TBZ) has said.

TBZ chairperson, Rhidah Mung'omba said currently the tobacco sector had only produced 48, 000 direct jobs adding that the figures could have multiplied if the country had processing and manufacturing plants.

Mr Mung'omba said this yesterday at the 2017/2018 national tobacco pre-marketing stakeholders meeting that was held at Hotel Intercontinental in Lusaka.

"It is saddening that as a country, we are still exporting unprocessed tobacco.

We therefore need to encourage processing and manufacturing to be done here in Zambia as this will boost local employment for our people."

Mr Mung'omba however announced that Roland Imperial Tobacco Company (RITCO) and British American Tobacco (BAT) had set up major processing and manufacturing plants in Zambia. "These value adding investments are appreciated as Zambians will be empowered from such investments," he said.

Mr Mung'omba further said the tobacco sub-sector was also struggling to grow in the country.

"Today our national production values have fallen to an all-time low of 23 million Kilogrammes compared to Zimbabwe and Malawi who are producing about 180 million Kgs and 150 million Kgs respectively.

In Zimbabwe the tobacco subsector contributes about 14% to GDP while Malawi's contribution stands at about 60%. In Zambia, the total contribution of the entire agriculture industry contributes only 9% to GDP," Mr Mung'omba explained.

The meeting was also attended by officials from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board of Zimbabwe (TIMB) and Tobacco Control Commission of Malawi (TCC).