Browsing: Tobacco

Not to be mistaken the adverse impact of the times have been felt at Richemont with sales for the half-year ending 30 September 2020 decreasing significantly by 26 per cent to €5.48 billion against the previous year. This decline in sales resulted in a fall in operating profits of 61 per cent from €1.165 billion to €452 million.

Notwithstanding this slowdown in profits, the company was able to deliver a 78 per cent increase in sales from their China market which has now been overtaken by the Americas as the company’s largest market.…

While all other agricultural exports are suffering reduced demand owing to the Covid-19 global pandemic, that is not the case for tobacco which has recorded remarkable increase in sales at the beginning of the marketing season.

Reports from Zimbabwe say export of flue-cured tobacco is stable and prices are firm, with tobacco sales having increased more than quadrupled over the cause of the last and the present season. Last season closed with sales of USD232 008 but this season has opened with sales of USD1 598 230 that is a 588 percent increase!

As market season opened at the start of the month, an impressive USD1.6 million was sold. With attractive prices that begun above USD 5 per kilogramme, farmers were more than willing to sell. Only three days after the marketing season opened, farmers had sold almost 700 000 kilogrammes of tobacco.

The country’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board …

The Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC), the country’s main tobacco producer, is looking to expand its sells to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The DRC is already TCC’s largest export destination that has seen the company grow its 2019 gross profit earnings by 56 percent, more than double compared to the previous year.

Nonetheless, the tobacco company enjoyed marginal growth when it came to annual revenue which inched up slightly by 5.2 percent to clock 309.8bn/- up from 294.3bn/- the year before that.

TCC is not the only company eyeing the DRC for business, increasingly, Tanzanian banks are reported to be making venture moves into the DRC. However, until now, it is small businesses that were enjoying the huge market of the central African state.

Many small businesses have been transporting goods to the DRC for years and enjoying lucrative returns. TCC is only the latest of manufacturing titans to …

The US restricted tobacco imports from impoverished Malawi over allegations that workers including children were being exploited.

Although Malawi’s total exports to the United States make up only a small part the US move could make it harder selling its tobacco elsewhere leading to anxiety among farmers who fear they might be forced to accept lower prices.

Tobacco is Malawi’s top crop in terms of employment, 60 per cent foreign exchange earnings and 25 per cent tax revenue any trouble the sector runs into could quickly affect the economy.

Tobacco is already confronted with global anti-tobacco campaigns adding more pressure on the tobacco sector in Malawi.

Its troubles began in late October when the British law firm Leigh Day announced it was preparing a landmark class action case against British American Tobacco (BAT) on behalf of 2,000 Malawian farmers, including hundreds of children, for forced labour and poor wages.

BAT, …

Tobacco growing in Tanzania may get a boost if plans by the government to increase sales are successful.

The Tanzanian government is planning to initiate talks with the member states of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to seek markets for tobacco in those countries.

Data indicates that in 2017, tobacco brought in more foreign exchange to the country than coffee, cotton, tea, cloves and sisal combined.

However, tobacco production fell considerably over the third quarter of 2018, dropping by a third of the previous quarter’s performance.

The setback was that Tanzania’s tobacco was sold at high prices in other countries because of charging high tax, compared to the same tobacco from Uganda and Kenya.

The country is in talks with Egypt and Algerian ambassadors to Tanzania to prepare bilateral agreements that would enable reduced tax on Tanzania’s tobacco to be sold in those countries in …