Zimbabwe
Valley smallholder farmers in Manicaland have made a breakthrough into lucrative cigar tobacco farming after clinching a market in Germany, the country’s Financial Gazette reports.
The farmers are producing a high quality strain used to make cigar wrappers, with assistance from seasoned commercial farmer, Lindsay Guild. Wrappers are the most expensive leaf to produce. However, they also fetch very good prices on the market. This is breaking new ground for the farmers, as Zimbabwe is known as a producer of flue-cured tobacco. A total of 13 smallholder farmers are currently part of the farming venture. An official involved with the project said they were growing a cigar tobacco strain known as cubra, which is used as a wrapper.
Guild has partnered with Europe-based Von Eicken, which specializes in a wide range of tobacco products, in the project. The venture, which was first mooted in 2013, was followed by the launch of the Cigar Wrapper Tobacco Auction Floor at Mapetu Farm in Burma Valley after a successful trial run of the top earning golden leaf last season.
This development makes Zimbabwe the third African country after Cameroon and Kenya to produce cigar wrapper tobacco.
“Our target is to reach 14 to 15 tonnes in sales by next year,” said Guild, who has been growing tobacco since 1977. “Last year, we did one hectare as a trial and we fermented it and it’s now on its way to Germany. They were happy with the trial run. So this year we have gone up to about 11 hectares including small-scale. And then next year we plan to double the production,” he said.
Guild said plans were underway to seek more foreign markets since cigar tobacco was on high demand in America, United Kingdom, and neighbouring South Africa. He, however, pointed out that Von Eicken was financially bankrolling the project.
Cigar tobacco has no additives and is considered an environmentally friendly cash crop as it is air cured. It also fetches higher prices on the market compared to flue-cured tobacco.