Little to cheer about as Zimbabwe tobacco auction ends September 26, 2005
Harare - The tobacco selling season has ended in Zimbabwe with only 72 million kilograms sold, the state-controlled Herald reported on Monday.
The total quantity of tobacco sold this year is a marginal increase over the 68.9 million kilograms sold in 2004. But in 2000, shortly before the launch of a controversial land reform programme commercial farmers produced well over 200 million kilograms of tobacco.
The value of this year's crop decreased to $117 million from the $137 million last year, the Herald said.
Zimbabwe's tobacco crop is sold between April and September at auctions in Harare.
Tobacco used to account for 40 percent of the country's foreign currency receipts, but production has fallen sharply since the launch of the land reform programme five years ago.
Thousands of former white-owned tobacco farms have been seized by President Robert Mugabe's government for redistribution to new black farmers. - Sapa-dpa
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