Masuka bullish on tobacco plan
PHILLIMON MHLANGA IN VICTORIA FALLS
Agriculture minister Axious Masuka is bullish the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation plan will radically transform the troubled agriculture sector, Business Times can report.
Masuka spoke virtually on Thursday at the on-going CEO Africa Roundtable conference in the resort town of Victoria Falls.
“The plan will be radical enough to transform the lives of Zimbabwe tobacco farmers as well as help the sector contribute meaningfully towards Vision 2030 , which seeks to create an upper middle-income economy,” Masuka said.
He added: “It’s a bold plan to transform the tobacco sector because tobacco is at the core of the economy.”
The Tobacco Value Chain Transformation plan,which was approved by Cabinet recently , is meant to transform the sector into a US$5bn industry by 2025 with local financing of the golden leaf complementing external sources.
Over the years, local tobacco farmers have been exposed to the predatory tobacco merchants, who have been accused of impoverishing the farmers by luring them into a debt trap.
Masuka said Zimbabwe has been failing to get maximum benefit from its tobacco crop in terms of value addition and beneficiation.
“Only 1% or 2% of the local tobacco is value added before exported. We need to capture more value by increasing the level of value addition and beneficiation of tobacco from the 2% of total tobacco produced to 30% . This is more than a low hanging fruit,” Masuka said.
