Tobacco output seen declining on El Niño effects

THE Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) says it will review downwards its tobacco crop predictions for the 2023/24 marketing season, considering the El Niño climatic phenomenon, among other challenges, NewsDay Business can report.

The review also comes at a time when there are significantly fewer farmers registered for this season than there were for the same period last year.

TIMB had projected 260 million kilogrammes of tobacco for this season, but the drop in registration will see this figure being reviewed.

Responding to questions from journalists during a media interface on Wednesday last week, TIMB head of operations Blessing Dhokotera said a drop in registration meant a drop in production.

“I think we have seen in our previous reporting that our initial projection was 260 million kg. But in this period, I think we have seen the issues to do with significant dry conditions,” he said.

“We are going to revise the figure downwards. I think everyone has seen what is going on. So, we are going to begin our crop assessment and we are going to share with you the figure in due course.

“Decline on registration also culminates in decline in production. We were going to put 260 million hectares, and then there was a decline in registration.

Dhokotera said TIMB personnel was in the field to make estimates in the wake of the prolonged dry spell, which was likely to negatively affect the initial forecast.

He, however, said TIMB had laid out a plan meant to increase tobacco production and this was going to be achieved through intensified training of farmers.

“We are going to increase production. Our plan is to intensify training so that farmers can increase production so that our national yield is increased, and we attain the desired hectarage,” he said.

This year, two auction floors Tobacco Sales Floor and Premier Tobacco Auction Floor, will be operating.

He said other plans also included efforts to curb side marketing, adding the regulator came up with a transporter compliance framework, which would work towards developing a vibrant system that monitored the movement of tobacco from the primary source up to the market.

“In this regard, losses are minimised thereby increasing farmer profitability and viability for improved livelihoods by 2025,” he said.

“The framework seeks to counter criminal activities like side marketing, tobacco bale theft, bale swapping and forgery on stop order launching.”

Tobacco is one of biggest foreign currency earners in Zimbabwe.