Prices still down in Zimbabwe

The average grower price paid for Zimbabwe’s flue-cured tobacco is still down on that of 2015.

Last year, the country’s growers were told to improve the quality of their leaf so as to earn better prices.

But these better prices have not arrived despite the fact that, in April, the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU) executive director Paul Zakaria said that this season’s crop was of the highest quality seen in recent years.

No reason has been given for why prices are still down when quality is apparently up.

The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) of Zimbabwe said that tobacco growers had sold 165 million kg of leaf valued at US$484 million as of July 7.

The value of the purchases was said to have been increased by 6.0 percent on that of the same stage of the 2015 sales, but the volume was up by 6.3 percent.

The average price paid for the grower’s leaf was down from US$2.95 per kg to US$ 2.94 per kg.