Staff Reporter

The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), has announced the forthcoming opening of auction floors in March, urging tobacco stakeholders to make full use of the TIMB booking system.

According to TIMB, the 2024 auction tobacco marketing season is scheduled to commence on Wednesday, March 23, 2024, with contract tobacco sales starting on Thursday, March 14, 2024.

"All tobacco stakeholders are encouraged to fully utilise the TIMB booking system," stated TIMB in a notice to stakeholders.

Information gathered by this publication revealed that by February 2, farmers had planted 113,101 hectares of tobacco, indicating a four percent decrease from the previous year's 117,645 hectares.

However, the previous season witnessed a significant rise in the number of tobacco farmers, reaching 148,527 compared to 123,000 in 2022.

 This increase is attributed to factors such as improved support for small-scale farmers, higher tobacco prices, and favourable weather conditions.

Tobacco remains Zimbabwe's second-largest foreign currency earner after gold.

Cabinet data released last Tuesday indicated that 36.8 million kilogrammes of tobacco had been exported this year, fetching an average price of US$7.33 per kilogrammes, compared to 11.6 million kilograms exported over a similar period in 2023, with an average price of US$4.31 per kilogram.

"From a record production of 296 million kilogrammes under the Second Republic, 236,031,405 kilogrammes of tobacco worth US$1,237,342,456 were subsequently exported in 2023,” Cabinet highlighted.

Meanwhile, there are indications that most of the tobacco that will be sold this year is destined for markets in the Far East, Africa, the Middle East, and the European Union.