Story by Tendai Munengwa
FARMERS have raked in over US$220 million since the beginning of the 2025 tobacco marketing season in March.
The tobacco industry has witnessed great stability over the past few years, with chaos that used to rock auction floors owing to poor prices now a thing of the past.
Over 64 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf have so far gone under the hammer at both auction and contract floors.
The marketing season has witnessed good prices from the primings, with only a few bales rejected in the past 26 days since floors opened.
Latest statistics show that the decentralisation policy taken by TIMB has made life easier for farmers, with 33 percent of the sold tobacco recorded outside Harare.
“We have taken a deliberate policy to adopt the devolution agenda and the decentralisation policy is working well. It has taken the markets closer to the rural areas making the life of the farmer easier as well as cutting costs,” TIMB Acting Chief Executive Officer, Emmanuel Matsvaire said.
The introduction of the biometric system is also expected to bring sanity to the industry with farmers being encouraged to embrace the technology.
‘We want to make sure that the tobacco sector becomes a fair and transparent industry where farmers are happy while contractors desist from side marketing, hence this new system is expected to play a crucial role,” Matsvaire noted.
The country is expecting about 280 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf with high chances that an initial target of 300 million kilogrammes could be achieved.
