By Almot Maqolo.
Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South) – Tobacco auction and contract seasonal sales increased by 28 percent to $230.8 million prior to $180.8 million of the same period last year, latest figures from the industry regulator shows.
Tobacco is the country’s single largest export commodity, ahead of platinum and gold.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) statistics for Tuesday this week show that the uptake of deliveries have continued to rise up.
In the period under review, at least 83.2 million of kilograms (kg) have been sold which is an increase of 30.3 percent.
Of late, many communal farmers have been abandoning other cash crops such as cotton for tobacco due to the favourable prices.
The average price of the golden leaf per kg on the day under review was at $2.77 which was slightly down from $2.83 reported over the same time frame last year.
Tobacco bales went up from 1.1 million from 818.277 recorded in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, TIMB said the number of rejected bales have continued to rise up from 46.435 of same time frame last year to 68.636.
The highest price changed to $6 prior to $6.25 of same period last year whilst the lowest price remains unchanged at $0.10 cents.
Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector is poised to grow by 12 percent mainly on the back of the good farming season whilst this year’s tobacco output is projected at 200 million kilograms.
The past cropping season was characterized by drought which resulted in farmers planting late, while the crop was also heavily affected by dry spells.
In 2015, tobacco output was 199 million kg raking in US$867 million.
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