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- Zimbabwe is Africa’s biggest tobacco grower and one of the world’s top exporters of the nicotine leaf. It has opened its selling season with a pledge to fight deforestation and child labour
Zimbabwe is Africa’s biggest tobacco grower and one of the world’s top exporters of the nicotine leaf. It has opened its selling season with a pledge to fight deforestation and child labour. Of late, the industry has been facing pressure from rights groups, environmentalists and international buyers to make the industry more sustainable. Of late, tobacco cultivation is attracting a lot of criticisms for its proven role in causing cancer.
Most of Zimbabwe’s flue-cured tobacco crop comes from more than 100,000 small-scale Black farmers. Small-scale farmers produced about 63% of the total crop of over 200 000 tons sold last year. It is found that children as young as five work in the fields with their parents to help meet family costs. They work in hazardous conditions, performing tasks that threaten their health and safety or interfere with their education. Child workers are also exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides. Many including children suffer symptoms consistent with nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco leaves.
Also Read:
https://trendsnafrica.com/imf-projects-3-5-economic-growth-for-zimbabwe/
https://trendsnafrica.com/zimbabwe-cabinet-approves-whistleblower-protection-bill/
Zimbabwean law sets the minimum age for employment at 16 while banning children under 18 “from performing hazardous work. But the law does not specifically ban children from handling tobacco.
It is also found that the smaller tobacco growers can’t afford electricity or coal needed to cure the tobacco leaves. They resort to cutting down nearby trees causing depletion of forest resources.
Tobacco is on a rebound in this southern African nation where production plummeted from a peak of 260 million kilograms (290,000 tons) in 1998 to less than 50 million kilograms (60,000 tons) a decade later. This was due to the eviction of several thousand white farmers who accounted for the majority of growers.
In recent years Zimbabwe has rapidly increased the size of its tobacco crop. It is now one of the world’s top five exporters of tobacco. It exported over 200 million kilograms (220,000 tons) of tobacco in 2021. This year’s crop is expected to be about 10% and 15% lower due to unfavourable weather. But tobacco will remain one of Zimbabwe’s biggest earners[L1] of foreign currency along with minerals such as gold and funds sent by Zimbabweans living outside the country. Tobacco fetched Zimbabwe about US$1.2 billion in exports last year. The earning is expected to increase into a US$5 billion industry by 2025.
