Zimbabwe-China tobacco expo to be held in third quarter

ZIMBABWE will hold the first Zimbabwe-China tobacco expo in the third quarter of this year to promote the country's tobacco, the country's industry regulatory body, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), announced Friday.

The expo will be held in the capital, Harare, by the TIMB in partnership with the Asia-Europe and Africa Joint Trade and Investment Promotion Association, an international non-governmental organization.

It is expected to bring together tobacco industry players across all the value chains, such as farmers, merchants, government representatives, and cigarette manufacturers, among other players, to advance cooperation in the tobacco sector.

Speaking after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the TIMB and the Tianjin representative office of the association in Harare, Emmanuel Matsvaire, acting chief executive officer of the TIMB, said the expo will bring solutions to challenges facing the local tobacco industry and open up new markets for Zimbabwe.

"Our farmers, through the value chain, have some challenges that probably have a solution that is available in China. What we want to do is to bridge the gap between what the farmers are looking for and what the Chinese can offer as a solution, from planting right up to the cigarette production," he said.

The expo is also expected to unlock opportunities for the local tobacco industry in international markets, as well as bring new technologies, he said.

China remains a major buyer of Zimbabwe's tobacco, consuming about 100 million kg of the country's tobacco crop each year, said Matsvaire.

"The Chinese ordinarily would account for a third of the total tobacco that will be purchased from this country. We are expecting a crop size of about 280 million kg of tobacco at the end of this year," he said.

He noted that China Tobacco, through its local subsidiary, Tianze Tobacco Company, has been pivotal in supporting the local tobacco industry through contract farming since the advent of Zimbabwe's land reform program of the early 2000s.

Lu Zhaofeng, executive president of the association, said the vision of this expo is to promote international trade in the tobacco business between China and Zimbabwe.

"Through this expo, we want to get suppliers of facilities, equipment, and packaging industries to come here to have a look at the local requirements," she said.

Tobacco, primarily cultivated by small-scale farmers, is Zimbabwe's leading agricultural export and one of the country's top foreign currency earners.