The 2022/ 2023 tobacco marketing season officially opens today, 08 March 2023, with the contract floors set to open the day after.
The official opening ceremony will be conducted this morning at the Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF) to be presided over by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.
Two auction floors, that is, Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF) and Premier Tobacco Auction Floors (PTAF), have been licenced by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).
This season, tobacco farmers will be paid 85 percent of their sales proceeds in foreign currency and the remaining quarter in Zimbabwe dollars.
In 2017, tobacco accounted for 11% of the country’s GDP, and 3 million of the country’s 16 million people depended on tobacco farming for their livelihood.
The main export market is China, which purchased 54% of Zimbabwe’s exports in 2015.
Zwnews
