Farai Mabeza, Senior Staff Writer 
TOBACCO farmers struggled to recapitalise after last year’s marketing season on account of the government’s requirement to convert 50 percent of their foreign currency earnings into the local currency. 
The Tobacco Farmers Union of Zimbabwe (ToFUZ), which represents small-holder producers is now demanding that the forex retention ratio be increased to 70 percent noting that the current arrangement had depleted their earnings and forced most of the farmers to shift into contract farming.
This comes as Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) chairman, Patrick Devenish, told The Financial Gazette that auction floors would in all likelihood get less tobacco than they did last year as approximately 98 percent of this year’s crop was contracted.
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