Story by Tendai Munengwa
THE Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has entered into a strategic partnership with Chinese investors through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at enhancing tobacco value addition in Zimbabwe through access to cutting-edge Chinese technology.
The MoU was signed in Harare by Zhaofeng Lu, Executive President of the Asia and Africa Joint Trade and Investment Promotion Association, in collaboration with TIMB.
The agreement paves the way for the Zimbabwe-China Tobacco Expo, slated for September this year, which will showcase innovative mechanisation and value-addition technologies in the tobacco sector.
“I am here as a follow-up to our engagement with TIMB in China. We are happy to sign the Memorandum of understanding so that China can come and exhibit the new technology that can assist Zimbabweans to value add their tobacco and boost production, so we agreed that together we can host an expo here for farmers and stakeholders to appreciate the technology, said Asia-Africa Joint Trade and Investment Promotion Association Executive President Zhaofeng Lu,” he said.
The Zimbabwe-China Tobacco Expo pencilled for this September is expected to showcase the latest tobacco technology for small-to-large scale farmers.
“A lot of new tobacco technology ranging from equipment for tillage especially for small farmers who constitute 85% of tobacco production will be exhibited at this Expo new technology on tobacco models which is the critical component to achieve the best quality will also be demonstrated to farmers and remember value addition we have stakeholders who want to occupy the value addition space but have not been exposed to new technology. This tobacco Expo will bring a variety of all this new tech in the tobacco value chain, fisheries,” TIMB acting CEO, Emmanuel Matsvaire said.
China has over the years turned out to be Zimbabwe’s biggest consumer of tobacco- with statistics showing that over 100 million kilograms of semi-processed gold leaf are exported to the Asian Gaint.
