Zim panics over tobacco ban

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

The government has pressed the panic button following threats by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ban tobacco production on health grounds, Business Times can report.

Tobacco is Zimbabwe’s fourth largest foreign currency earner with annual exports receipts hovering around US$800m.

The sector also directly supports close to 200 000 households. It also accounts for 50% of agriculture export receipts and contributes 25% of the agriculture gross  domestic product.

“The (proposed) elimination of tobacco is a real threat to our agriculture sector. Our tobacco is exported to more than 60 destinations. Only 1% or 2%  is value added before export. We need to capture more value. We have come up with a bold plan, which will be radical enough to transform the (agriculture) sector,” Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Anxious Masuka said recently.

Dahlia Garwe, the  CEO of Tobacco Research Board, said the move to ban tobacco will be a huge blow to Zimbabwe, which is the sixth largest producer of tobacco globally with over 95% of total tobacco produced being flue cured, renowned for its flavour. “It’s a threat to our tobacco industry following the plan to ban the crop. Zimbabwe has been known for producing  the flavour style which is well sought after in the world market. So, if the ban threat  is carried out, it will be a huge blow to the country,” Garwe said.

She said the Tobacco Research Board has not been “sitting on our laurel” and is looking at alternatives to “say what else can be grown which can give our farmers a good return”.

“We are doing some research on that. We have discovered that chia, which is a food crop, can be a good alternative,” Garwe said.

“If tobacco is banned, it can still be used for other things. For example, pharmaceuticals can use a lot of tobacco for their drug production. You will also be surprised to  know that tobacco seed can  be used  in oil production. So, it’s a serious threat to the industry, but we are pushing for alternative crops.”

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Shadreck Makombe said the planned ban will dampen the country’s growth as Zimbabwe will lose close to US$1bn in export revenue and will not recover easily from the effect.

“In order to tap into the alternative crops huge investment is required into these identified crops, regional and international collaboration into research to explore its alternative uses and development of a policy on crop diversification. Many farmers will face challenges in farming industrial hemp as it needs high training to achieve it hence it will take years to do that,” Makombe said.

Zimbabwe Farmers Union secretary general Paul Zakariya told this publication that WHO should ban smoking not tobacco growing as the crop is used for various pharmaceutical issues.

“WHO health concerns should be revised as it affects various economies which depend upon the cash crop. More than US$1 trillion will be lost if the WHO  persists with its implementation,” Zakariya said.

In 2019, Zimbabwe was the third leading exporter of unmanufactured tobacco in terms of value (US$782.9m) after Brazil and Belgium and fifth leading exporter in terms of exported quantities (173,599mt) after Brazil, Belgium, China and India.

Zimbabwe currently supplies most of the leading importers of tobacco including China, which is the largest importer accounting for 57% of Zimbabwe’s exports.

Zimbabwe is getting fair prices as compared to other leading exporters such as India, Malawi, Belgium and China.

As recently as November last year, WHO carried out Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss the ban, under the theme, “The end of tobacco pandemic”.

With Covid-19 ravaging economies in the world, the WHO is pushing the narrative that tobacco is causing respiratory problems and worsens Covid-19 effects to people.

According to WHO, tobacco remains the only consumer product that kills up to half of those who use it as intended by manufacturers and it kills one person every four seconds, approximately eight million individuals needlessly dying every year with one million of those deaths occurring in non-smokers exposed to tobacco smoke.

WHO also links tobacco use to the four most prevalent noncommunicable diseases: cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes.

The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) CEO, Meanwell Gudu told Business Times that the production and marketing of tobacco  was under threat although there were moves to develop an agricultural diversification plan.

However, Zimbabwean farmers are already diversifying and growing such enterprises as cannabis for research and medicinal use, industrial hemp, citrus, stevia, macadamia nuts, cut flowers, saffron crocus, soya bean, among others.

“As stewards and facilitators of the tobacco industry TIMB is advocating sustainable ways to produce tobacco that are viable for the farmer, environmentally conscious, promote good health of farm workers and partakers of tobacco by-products while profit making for every player in the tobacco value chain.”

The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association CEO, Rodney Ambrose said the threat was strong.

“And as per the resolution from the WHO, additional resources will be available to countries to further strengthen tobacco control measures. The realisation of the threat is also contained in our Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Strategy Plan,” Ambrose said.

In its Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Strategy document, the government said the production and marketing of tobacco is largely threatened from anti-tobacco campaigns in the form of FCTC.

“The value chain has the capacity to contribute more to agriculture and national GDP through optimisation of financing and increasing productivity to three metric tonnes per hectare from 1.5 metric tonnes.

“The Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan seeks to secure the future and consolidated the important role of tobacco value chain to agriculture and the economy through sustainable intensification of tobacco production to 300m kilogrammes, reforming, restructuring and rebuilding existing institutions in order to optimise tobacco value chain financing in order to optimise the net export benefits from tobacco, increasing tobacco value addition and beneficiation from the current 2% to 30%,” reads part of the document.

The framework associates tobacco with detrimental effects on the environment and on the health of farm workers.

Environmental harm include soil nutrient depletion and deforestation, while health hazards include a range of occupational health risks, including green tobacco sickness and exposure to pesticides.

The FCTC however provides for economically viable alternative activities for tobacco growing households.

The alternative cropping sector will face a number of challenges among which are high initial costs; unidentified domestic and export markets; and lack of improved seed varieties.