Cigar wrapper tobacco marketing opens
TOBACCO Industry Marketing Board has pledged to partner foreign investors and farmers in Burma Valley to ensure cigar wrapper tobacco production reach its full potential.
Opening the 2017 cigar wrapper marketing season at Mapeto Farm in Burma Valley last Friday, TIMB board chairperson, Mrs Monica Chinamasa, said cigar wrapper production had availed farmers in the area an alternative cash crop, suitable for production, replacing air-cured burley which the area was once known for.
“Cigar wrapper needs a lot of commitment and is not for the faint-hearted as evidenced by the extreme swings in production styles and productivity during the very dry 2016-2017 season. I wish to stress that the overall major determinant for the future of cigar wrapper tobacco in Burma Valley is production of quality tobacco.
“TIMB is committed to seeing cigar wrapper tobacco production reach its full potential and we are open to form mutually-beneficial partnerships with German company, Von Eiken. It is commendable that small-scale farmers in this area have taken to the production of cigar wrapper tobacco at a time when demand for the crop is high,” she said, adding that the farmers should also benefit from the five percent export incentive for their 2016 production and this year.
The production of cigar wrapper tobacco in Burma Valley was mooted three seasons ago, thanks to Von Eiken after burley tobacco production ceased in the area as well as in Chipinge and Nyamaropa due to high costs of production coupled with unfavourable climatic conditions.
The number of cigar wrapper tobacco growers in the area have increased from last year’s 14 to 27 this year. Last season, 10 154 kg of cigar wrapper tobacco was sold, with farmers earning $422 629, 25 at an average price of $2,23 per kg. The cigar wrapper tobacco is sold through decentralised contract sales conducted at the farm. Classification and arbitration of these sales are done by appropriately-trained TIMB personnel from their office in Rusape.
After the farmers have produced the leaf, they have to grade it and “iron” it before delivering it to the market, where the merchants stake the tobacco and continuously turn the stakes in a fermentation process that takes about eight months before the tobacco is properly matured and ready for export.
Leaves that do not meet the standard for cigars can also be used to make darkhaired cured cigarettes, dark air-cured rollers while “greens” can be used to blend, although in very small percentages. Like Virginia, cigar wrapper tobacco does well in sandy loam soils where most grain crops would require a lot of fertilizers and is not a threat to the production of cereal crops.