A new agricultural model for tobacco growing, which includes more investment from the government, could potentially triple state export revenues from tobacco leaf, the Chronicle reported, citing comments made by an official.

In comments made in parliament, Uzumba Marama Pfungwe legislator, Simbaneuta Mudarikwa urged more support for tobacco growing by including tobacco in the government’s Command Agriculture model which was introduced to boost national production of grain in the 2016/17 season.
Revenues from tobacco could earn the country as much as USD 3 billion (EUR 2.52 billion), he said.
“We must move into Command Tobacco because it gives this country foreign currency […] If we take USD 500 million and put it into tobacco and export, next year things will not be the same. The production of tobacco must go up every year. We can easily have a USD 2 billion or USD 3 billion tobacco industry if we support it,” Mudarikwa was quoted as saying.
Revenues from tobacco leaf reached USD 933 million in 2016, the Chronicle said.