Tobacco Volumes Surge 35% As Zimbabwe’s Farmers Face Price Squeeze
At the auction floors along Harare’s Glen Norah Road, the queues have been longer this season. Bales of golden leaf stretch in neat lines, tickets pinned, hopes attached. Yet when the figures came from Cabinet this week, they told a story many smallholders already felt in their pockets: they are selling more tobacco, but earning less for every kilogramme.
By day 42 of the 2026 marketing season, Zimbabwe had sold 203.88 million kilogrammes of tobacco, a 35% jump in volume compared to the same point in 2025, according to an official update presented after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. But the average price is down sharply — US$2.59 per kilogramme, a decline of 24% on last year’s level, Cabinet said.
Those twin numbers — more leaf, less value — sit at the heart of a growing dilemma for one of Zimbabwe’s most important export crops, and for the thousands of small-scale farmers who have built their livelihoods around it.
Why Tobacco Volumes Are Rising But Farmer Returns Are Falling
Announcing the figures during the post-Cabinet briefing, Agriculture Minister Anxious Jongwe Masuka said the tobacco marketing season was progressing at pace.
“As at day 42, a total of 203.88 million kilogrammes of tobacco had been sold at an average price of US$2.59 per kilogramme,” Cabinet said in its statement, noting the 35% increase in volume and 24% slide in price compared to 2025.
In simple terms, farmers have harvested and brought more crop to market — yet the market is paying less for each kilogramme. This kind of pattern often points to a mix of global and local forces: softer international demand, quality concerns, or simply more supply chasing the same pool of buyers.
FFA Explainer:
Tobacco prices at the auction and contract floors are influenced by global demand, quality of the leaf, and the balance between supply (how much is produced) and demand (how much buyers need). When there is a bumper crop but limited demand, prices tend to fall, even if farmers have worked harder and produced more.
Zimbabwe’s tobacco is primarily grown for export, earning critical foreign currency that feeds into the broader economy. For Government, rising volumes look positive on the foreign earnings ledger. For a grower in Hurungwe or Guruve staring at this season’s price board, the picture is less rosy.
What This Means For Smallholder Growers On The Ground
Across Mashonaland West and Central, tobacco has become a central pillar of household income over the past decade. Communal and A1 farmers shifted land and labour into the crop, encouraged by contract schemes and the promise of hard currency.
On a typical plot outside Karoi, a family may rotate maize, groundnuts, and tobacco on a few hectares. Tobacco brings in cash for school fees and inputs; food crops carry the family through the year. When tobacco prices fall by nearly a quarter — as Cabinet says they have this season — the gap has to be filled somehow.
An A1 farmer in Mashonaland West recently summed it up to FFA this way: “We took more risk and planted more tobacco, but the price is going backwards. The trucks are full, but the wallet is lighter.” [Illustrative — verify or replace]
For many smallholders, the impact is sharpened by the structure of contract growing. Inputs — fertiliser, seed, chemicals — are often supplied on credit by a contractor and then deducted from the farmer’s sales. Lower prices can mean that, after deductions, very little cash remains in hand.
Zimbabwe’s own Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has in past seasons warned that over-reliance on a single cash crop, and on contract finance, can leave smallholders exposed when global prices turn.
How The Government Is Reading The 2025/26 Season
The latest sales data came as Cabinet, chaired by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, received an overview of the 2025/2026 summer crops marketing season and the 2026 winter production plan.
That signals tobacco does not stand alone on the policy radar. It sits alongside maize, soya bean, traditional grains, and wheat in national plans under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which seeks to grow agriculture’s contribution to GDP and rural incomes.
Aligning with AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Government has consistently framed export crops like tobacco as a route to foreign currency, jobs, and improved rural livelihoods. The current price squeeze tests how well that vision translates into real incomes on the ground.
From a policy perspective, higher volumes suggest that extension support, input availability, and farmer confidence all held up into this season. But the sharp fall in price also raises questions: Are farmers pushing up volumes at the expense of quality? Are buyers using increased supply to negotiate lower prices? Or are there deeper shifts in global tobacco demand? [SOURCE REQUIRED]
Zimbabwe Anchor: A Hurungwe Farmer Counts The Cost
In Hurungwe District, one of Zimbabwe’s tobacco heartlands, smallholder farmers have been quick to do the maths. A farmer who sold 5,000 kilogrammes at last year’s higher price might have gone home with enough to repair a borehole, pay school fees, and set aside something for cattle.
This season, even if that same farmer managed to increase production to 6,000 kilogrammes, a 24% cut in the average price can wipe out much of the gain. The higher yield is swallowed by the weaker price.
A Hurungwe youth farmer in a local tobacco association told FFA: “We followed the advice to increase production. We even hired more neighbours to help with reaping and curing. Now we’re hearing the price is down. As young people, we want to grow, but we also need predictability.” [Illustrative — verify or replace]
For women farmers, the stakes are just as high. In many households, women manage the day-to-day labour and post-harvest work, even when the tobacco contract is signed in a man’s name. Lower prices can narrow their room to invest in small livestock, savings clubs, or school-related expenses for children.
Efforts by organisations linked to Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development and development partners to support women’s participation in cash crop value chains become even more important when markets turn.
Should Farmers Rethink Their Crop Mix?
Across the region, agriculture experts have long argued that smallholders need a balanced “basket” of crops: some for cash, others for food and soil health. Tobacco remains a high-value crop compared to many alternatives, but not when prices slide too far.
In the context of NDS1’s push for diversified and climate-smart agriculture, the current season’s numbers may prompt farmers and policymakers alike to ask hard questions. Does it still make sense to allocate so much land, labour, and borrowed input to tobacco, or should part of that effort move into soya bean, sunflower, or higher-value horticulture?
FFA has reported on farmers in Mazowe and Bindura experimenting with smallholder horticulture for local and export markets, while keeping a smaller area under tobacco as a core cash source. That kind of gradual rebalancing could soften the impact of price swings, especially for youth and women-led enterprises.
FFA Explainer:
Diversification means spreading risk across different crops and income streams. For a smallholder, this may look like dedicating part of the land to a stable food crop (maize, small grains), part to a cash crop (tobacco, soya bean, paprika), and part to emerging opportunities (horticulture, legumes for seed). The aim is to avoid being wiped out by price or weather shocks to a single crop.
Where Technology And Innovation Can Help Farmers Respond
For a farmer standing in front of the price board, innovation might sound abstract. Yet this is where technology, better information, and farmer organisation can shift the story.
- Market information: Digital platforms and SMS alerts can help farmers and associations track prices across different floors and buyers, making it harder for low offers to slip through unchallenged.
- Quality management: Simple on-farm tools — moisture meters, improved curing structures, affordable solar barn technologies — can help improve leaf quality and push individual farmers towards the premium end of the price range.
- Farmer groups: Stronger associations can negotiate better contract terms, transport arrangements, and even collective sales, increasing their bargaining power when prices are under pressure.
Across Africa, from Malawi to Zambia, pilot projects have shown that when smallholders are connected to digital market access platforms, they are better able to plan production and time their sales. Zimbabwe’s tobacco farmers could benefit from similar home-grown solutions tailored to the realities of auction floors and contract depots.
Balancing Foreign Currency Goals With Household Resilience
Zimbabwe’s tobacco sector will remain a cornerstone of export earnings for the foreseeable future. It supports jobs not only in the fields but in transport, processing, and associated services. For Government, the 35% rise in volume is a headline that aligns well with foreign currency targets and NDS1 ambitions.
Yet the 24% fall in the average price, confirmed by Cabinet, is a reminder that national success metrics and household realities don’t always move in the same direction.
The challenge now is to ensure that as the country pushes towards higher production and deeper integration into global value chains — a long-term vision shared under frameworks like Agenda 2063 — the farmer at the start of that chain is not left carrying all the risk.
At the Harare floors, the lines of tobacco bales will keep moving. Trucks from Hurungwe, Mount Darwin, and Rusape will keep arriving. The golden leaf will keep earning for the nation. The real test is whether, when the season closes, the families who grew it will feel that their hard work and increased volumes translated into a fair return.
As one farmer in Mashonaland Central put it, watching buyers inspect his bales: “We are not against producing more. We just want the numbers on the board to respect the sweat in the field.” [Illustrative — verify or replace]
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