Zimbabwe has always been a significant player in the tobacco industry. Tobacco is the second-largest Zimbabwean export after gold, making it a crucial export for the nation. In fact, just last year, the country sold over $740 million of tobacco to international buyers.

However, this year, sales were expected to decline due to currency problems. Currency instability has been an issue in Zimbabwe for a while now. The disparity between the official rate and the market rate has always been vast and resulted in many losses for farmers, such as prices for inputs like seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides being priced in US dollars or rated at a higher exchange rate. Thus, for the 2020 sales season, tobacco farmers have lost about ZWL$1.127bn. As a result, the Zimbabwean government introduced the RTGS dollar in hopes of settling the issue. However, this move was met with much disapproval and backlash from its citizens. Moreover, to make matters worse, Zimbabwe's biggest buyers are from Europe and Asia, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made international trading highly difficult, thereby delaying this year’s tobacco marketing season.

Last year, farmers sold over 258 million kg of tobacco from 79,708 ha. This year, even though 81,977 ha had been planted, only 225 million kg of tobacco had been produced. This was mainly because although the hectarage had increased, the number of farmers growing tobacco went down 16% from last year, from 178,721 to 149,502.

However, despite such challenges, tobacco sales were still 40% higher than the previous year. In fact, Zimbabwe has already earned over 221 million USD from April to June 2020. Prices have also been generally reasonable, with the highest recorded contract floor pricing at $6.6 per kg, while the auction floors have recorded $4.99 per kg. The average price for 2020 was also at $2.27 per kg, which is higher than the $1.78 from the 2019 marketing season.

Although the amount of tobacco is less than last year, Zimbabwe will still likely match or exceed last year's sales figures primarily due to better pricing. The pandemic had delayed the auctions, but authorities have found a solution that seems to be working so far.

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