Tobacco Asia

Volume 19, Number 5

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54 tobaccoasia / Issue 5, 2015December/January) Independent Leaf Suppliers Secure Their Fair Share in Global Business By Thomas Schmid While the global leaf tobacco trade is dominated by large multinationals, independent suppliers fill a gap through fast response times and the ability to fill specialized orders. TOBACCO ASIA takes a look at some of these companies, chosen randomly but certainly representing countless others in this first installment of an ongoing series of articles on the subject. Sorting and packaging At first glance it may seem that the global leaf to- bacco trade is firmly in the hands of a relatively small number of large multinational companies. Yet a considerable part of the total market is also fed by a veritable phalanx of smaller, independent- ly-operating leaf suppliers, who may have some advantages over the big players. Not only are in- dependent suppliers, generally quite fast in their response times, but they also prove extraordinarily flexible in filling specialized and smaller orders. Chidziva Tobacco Processors (Pvt) Ltd. – Bringing Zimbabwe Leaf to the World Thanks to a certain regime that stubbornly clings to power and shall not be named, Zimbabwe has the dubious distinction of being one of the world's latest pariah states, facing more international trade hurdles than can be good for its economy. But the country – together with neighbor Malawi – is also one of the globe's foremost producers of tobacco, both in terms of sheer volume and excellent quality. Established in 1998, Chidziva Tobacco Pro- cessors (CTP) is by far the largest, privately-owned tobacco merchant in Zimbabwe and is obviously successfully negotiating the crippling international trade hurdles plaguing this southern African na- tion. In 2015, CTP purchased approximately 6.8% of Zimbabwe's total FCV crop, an astonishing amount by any standards, which equated to around 14.5 m.kgs. green weight, or about 10 m.kgs.'s packed weight. This figure represents an increase of slightly more than 10% over the 13.1 m.kgs.'s green weight (~6.0% of total Zimbabwean crop) purchased by CTP in the previous year 2014. The company almost exclusively supplies cigarette manufacturers around the world with

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