Business and economic analyst, Victor Bhoroma said Zimbabwe is losing billions annually on account of exporting raw tobacco.
Bhoroma said Zimbabwe can make more money exporting cigarettes than unprocessed tobacco. Said Bhoroma:
The average export price for raw tobacco from Zimbabwe was $4.85/kg in 2018 while the average price for cigarettes was $32/kg. By exporting the same amount of kgs (after factoring in weight losses inmanufacturing), Zimbabwe could have realized $5.8 billion in one year. Zimbabwe exports raw tobacco to China, South Africa, UK, UAE, Belgium, New Zealand and Turkey which proceed to manufacture billions of cigarette sticks and export them at higher values under renowned brand names such as Marlboro, Camel, Davidoff, Newport and Dunhill.
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