Zim tobacco goes on sale today

Sales bookings for tobacco produced in Zimbabwe have opened as the tobacco auction officially opens today (Wednesday), although this year’s crop was well below initial projections due to erratic rainfalls.



TIMB chairperson Monica Chinamasa said in a statement that the country’s three leading auction floors — Boka Tobacco Auction Floor, Premier Tobacco Auction Floors and Tobacco Sales Floor — were ready to kick-start their business ahead of the marketing season this Wednesday. To curb problems caused by middlemen, Chinamasa said all auction floors would re-handle the golden leaf on site to improve efficiency and accountability.



Zimbabwe’s treasury department commented earlier this year that it expected to sell 222 million kilograms of the golden leaf to go through the auction floors this year, but TIMB has revised the projections downwards to 190 million kg due to erratic rainfalls which affected the crop output and delayed the auction.



Zimbabwe mainly exports its tobacco to China, South Africa, Belgium, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Egypt, Montenegro and Russia. TIMB figures show that South Africa is currently the second largest export destination – with China taking the top spot – for Zimbabwe tobacco.