Zimbabwe's annual tobacco sales end on Friday with foreign currency earnings down 11 percent, shattering quick recovery prospects in a country fighting a deep recession linked to a plunge in the key agriculture sector.
Tobacco exports used to be the major source of foreign exchange, but have been replaced by gold as sales of the crop steadily dropped from 236 million kgs in 2000, a trend blamed partly on President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms. Industry officials on Thursday saw the southern African nation facing another drop in gold leaf production in 2007 after a disastrous season this year that saw tobacco output falling by 21 percent to 53 million kgs, the lowest in decades.
"We were unable to reverse the decline seen since 2001 and there are worries that preparations for 2006/7 indicate that production could fall further," said Stanley Mutepfa, the general manager of Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
Zimbabwe has grappled with 8 years of recession widely blamed on official incompetence, with shortages of fuel and foreign exchange compounding problems in the farming sector.
Record high inflation has pushed production costs beyond most farmers, some of whom have benefited from Mugabe's land seizures but are unable to secure bank loans because they do not have collateral.
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