A Chinese investor plans to build a multi-billion dollar nicotine-extraction factory in Zimbabwe, reports The Herald. The plans are at an advanced stage, according to the country’s former ambassador to China, Christopher Mutsvangwa.
The facility will extract nicotine from tobacco stalks, leaves and flowers for the cigarette alternatives, such as e-cigarettes. Once established the factory is expected to also process tobacco from neighboring countries including Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.
“There is going to be a very big industry to extract nicotine from the by-products after selecting the premium tobacco leaves,” Mutsvangwa told participants in meeting of the ruling Zanu PF’s party’s Mashonaland West provincial coordinating committee meeting in Chinhoyi.
“The Chinese firms have an interest in setting up the factories here in Zimbabwe because of our production levels,” he said.
The investor’s board of directors reportedly met on May 31, 2024, to finalize the modalities of setting up the factory, which will likely be built in Karoi, in one of Zimbabwe’s largest tobacco producing districts.
Zimbabwe is also expected to be a major producer of cannabis seeds following plans to establish a US$400 million factory. “We now have capacity to produce cannabis seed in the country. After an initial investment of $30 million, the company now wants to set up a seed production factory,” said Mutsvangwa.
The investments in nicotine extraction and cannabis production will boost Zimbabwe’s attempts to extract more value from its tobacco industry, as detailed in the government’s Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan.
Zimbabwe’s earnings from cannabis exports could outstrip those of tobacco by almost three times, according to local officials, reports Bloomberg.
Last year, the southern African nation legalized cultivation of cannabis for medicinal use. Since announcing rules for growing cannabis in September, the government has issued 44 licenses. Zimbabwe neighbor Malawi decriminalized cannabis earlier this year.
Treasury spokesman Clive Mphambela expects sales to reach $1.25 billion in 2021. By comparison, Zimbabwe earned $444 million from the 2020 marketing season that closed in August, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
John Robertson
John Robertson, an independent economist based in Harare, said the projections were ambitious. “It’s a massive overestimate and ignores that cannabis is grown in many markets outside of Zimbabwe,” he told Bloomberg.
“It’s sold in grams, not in kilograms or tons, so there will be disappointment,” Robertson said. “The only enthusiasm will be from producers, but massive supply globally will depress prices.”
South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Lesotho have also legalized medicinal cannabis.
In his budget statement on Nov. 26, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said cannabis production for medicinal purposes has “immense potential” to generate export receipts and tax revenues. A so-called cannabis levy will be introduced next year, in line with export values, Ncube said. Taxes of as much as 20 percent will be applied on oils, bulk extracts and dried cannabis flowers.
Growers, most of whom are locals with international partners, can produce $40 million to $46 million worth of cannabis a month, underpinning Treasury’s “very conservative” estimates, Mphambela said.
Simbarashe Mutsine started smoking uncured tobacco at the age of 16. Now aged 43, Mutsine is bed ridden and battling for his life. He has been in and out of hospital suffering from a cocktail of health complications that doctors blame on his smoking habits, writes Everson Mushava in Zimbabwe’s The Standard.
Photo: Vchalup | Dreamstime.com
The Chinhoyi tobacco farmer has been experiencing respiratory complications and his blood pressure has also been high for some time. Doctors fear the worst saying arteries that carry blood to his heart muscle have been narrowed by clots caused by chemicals contained in cigarette smoke.
Mutsine has symptoms of coronary artery disease and can suffer a severe heart attack anytime, the doctors said. As if that was not enough, the father of five has also developed type two diabetes mellitus.
“We have lost hope, we have tried all we can but I think he is losing the war,” Mutsine’s sister, Chenayi said, looking dejected. “We thought he was bewitched, but the doctors blame his sickness on smoking. He has since stopped smoking because of ill-health, but there has been no change. We are placing everything in God’s hands.”
Mutsine is not alone in his troubles. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco smoking accounts for over seven million deaths worldwide, of which about five million will be men. Of the 7.1 million deaths recorded in 2016, 6.3 million were attributable to cigarette smoking while the other 884 000 were as a result of second-hand smoke.
The only hope is in a smoke-free future.
The carnage can be stopped.
American tobacco giant, Philip Morris International (PMI), through science and research, has already made a breakthrough that can save million lives and also bring relief to many countries, Zimbabwe included, whose economies are partly sustained by the golden leaf.
PMI has already produced a heating tobacco system; IQOS, which is unique in that it heats tobacco, but does not burn it. The electronic IQOS device generates a nicotine-containing aerosol by heating tobacco-filled sticks wrapped in paper.
Heating of the tobacco in controlled temperatures will significantly reduce the production of harmful chemicals produced through combustion. This was acknowledged by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who in July gave Phillip Morris the greenlight to market its IQOS in the USA.
Since 2016, international tobacco giant has been committing itself to science and research to transform its business towards healthier, smoke-free alternatives to nicotine delivery. The company aims to get at least 40 million of its adult customers to stop cigarette smoking and switch to one of the alternatives aimed at ultimately achieving a “smoke-free future.”
“A lot of people think it’s the nicotine in cigarettes that causes morbidity and mortality. But it’s not. Nicotine is addictive, but it’s not the primary cause of disease,” Andre Calantzopoulos, PMI chief executive officer told the Harvard Business Review in July. “The Food and Drug Authority (FDA) has clarified that. The problem is combustion. If you can eliminate combustion, then you significantly reduce the harmful chemicals the product emits compared to cigarette smoke. The best thing a smoker can do, of course, is to stop nicotine consumption altogether. But a billion people still smoke, so the next best thing you can do is to convince them to change their behaviour by creating products that they can switch to. That is what we are doing.”
He added: “Well, if you do a phase-out too early, you create unintended consequences, including contraband and so on. But with the right demand and supply measures, I think we can eliminate cigarettes in certain countries within reasonable time horizons – 10, 15 years.”
Asked if he had confidence that the transformation would be successful, Calantzopoulos said: “Why would I engage my company in a multibillion-dollar transformational exercise if I didn’t believe that it was the right thing to do?”
According to WHO, although tobacco products pose major public health problems, tobacco products remain one of the consumer products that are virtually unregulated in respect of contents and emissions.
Due to the challenges associated with the regulation of tobacco products, countries have been hesitant to implement regulations in the area because of the highly technical nature of policy interventions involved.
The tobacco industry also poses a challenge in translating science into regulation.
Experts believe failure to regulate tobacco products has presented a missed opportunity towards achieving a smoke-free future.
However, reduced risk tobacco products are still regulated in the same way as traditional cigarettes in order to prevent people especially in low-to-medium-income countries from accessing products that could reduce the harm that cigarettes pose to their lives.
