Zimbabwe tobacco sales surpass 100 mln kgs

Zimbabwe's tobacco deliveries to the auction floors last week surpassed the 100 million-kg mark for the first time in eight years.

There is now renewed hope that the deliveries could reach the new target of 114 million kg that was set by the industry recently, the Herald said on Tuesday.

The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has had to revise its target upwards twice from the initial 77 million kg. It last month revised the target to 93 million before settling for 114 million kg.

During the past eight years deliveries plummeted from about 165.6 million kg in 2002 to as low as 35 million kg in 2008 before rising to 56 million last year.

As of Friday last week a total of 102,5 million kg had been delivered to the country's auction floors realizing 303 million U.S. dollars at an average price of 2.96 dollars per kg.

A total of 57.06 million kg worth 170.6 million dollars was sold at 2.99 dollars per kg during the same time last year.

Tobacco deliveries have remained strong although there has been a steady decline from about 4 million-kg per day to about one million-kg as the season draws to an end.


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