By Brenda Kayo:
The Tobacco Commission (TC) has started the first round of crop assessment for the 2023-24 tobacco farming season to determine how much tobacco the country could produce this year.
TC spokesperson Telephorus Chigwenembe said the exercise will run from January 15 to February 2.
According to Chigwenembe, authorities will visit tobacco growing areas in the country for data collection.
“We are requesting tobacco farmers to provide our teams with correct information because it is the correct information that enables the commission to come up with credible estimates that are used by players in the economy,” he said.
He, however, said, so far, farmers have been licensed with quotas worth 248 million kilogrammes (kg) of all types of tobacco.
The commission has since extended the licencing period to January 31 2024.
Chigwenembe, however, said there will be no penalties and growers can pay for their registration and licencing after they sell their tobacco.
Recently, the commission announced that there is an increase in seedbed area and planned hectares for this year’s tobacco production. In the 2022-23 farming season, 120 million kg of tobacco valued at $282.6 million was sold at an average price of $2.35.
