• March 29, 2024

China ‘expected’ to build cigarette plant in Harare

China is expected to set up a cigarette manufacturing plant in Harare following discussions between the Zimbabwean government and officials from China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, according to a Daily News story.

Zimbabwe’s Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa is said to be keen to focus the country’s tobacco industry on value addition, so as to create more jobs.

“We are getting indications from China and for a long time we have been engaging with China,” Chinamasa was quoted as saying. “There is a state monopoly of tobacco in China and you cannot get tobacco whether raw or processed into China unless through the state monopoly company.

“We have been asking them to get a quota in China, but they refused; then we changed tact and said they could come and make a factory to manufacture cigarettes.

“If successful, they can come and set up a factory and export cigarettes to China.”

China is the major consumer of Zimbabwean tobacco.