Cannabis is the new darling in Zimbabwe, where farmers are upset over failing tobacco yields and switching to cannabis.

For a start, Zimbabwe has been one of the world's best producers of the 'Virginia leaf' brand of tobacco enjoyed in cigarettes the world over. Until now.

In Zimbabwe, tobacco yields are failing due to deforestation, overused soil, low-quality leaf, and exploitative prices offered by buyers from afar such as China and Europe.

"Tobacco is now a disappointment in Zimbabwe, hence the new excitement about cannabis,' says Jani Turo, 60, who has farmed Virginia leaf tobacco on a 5 hectares farm outside Harare for 20 years but is switching over to cannabis.

"It costs $1.80 in expenses just to produce and harvest a half kilogram of tobacco leaf, whereas cannabis costs just 60 cents."

From March to May, Zimbabwe's annual tobacco season gets underway yearly, drawing buyers from afar as China, Belgium, Israel, and South Africa. 150 000 tobacco farmers exhibit their crops in giant auction warehouses, haggling for the best prices per kilogram, says Meanwell Gudu, chief executive of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Industry Marketing Board.

"But this year, it's not so pleasing," says Gudu, who reveals that tobacco, which used to be lucrative, has fallen by nearly 20% in 2022 in both production and price earnings.

Prices are frustrating this year for Zimbabwe's tobacco farmers despite spirited attempts by the government to make sure merchants play a fair price game with farmers. One kilogram of tobacco was being bought for an average of $4.20. In 2021 the price was nearly $6. Terrific rains in January, when the tobacco crop is sensitive to weather, ruined quality to such an extent that other hard bargaining buyers were offering tobacco prices as low as $3.50 per kilogram at the auctions. To make matters worse, Zimbabwe's central bank withholds 25% of the farmer's US dollars earnings, which it later pays out in RTGS. This nearly worthless domestic currency is not accepted anywhere outside Zimbabwe.

Jump into cannabis

"I should have known and jumped into cannabis two years ago," says Peter Saruwa, 50, who harvested three tons of tobacco this year and said he suffered a $2000 net loss after selling.

"My neighbor, who is a farmer of cannabis, is thriving. He's readying the first medical cannabis harvest to Europe from Zimbabwe."

Peter's hope is the avalanche of cannabis startups that are flooding the scene in Zimbabwe, tempting farmers to grow Weed on borrowed money with ultra-low interest and pegging lucrative prices that reach up to $10 per kilogram of raw harvested cannabis leaf.

"Tobacco can compete with cannabis," says Brian Tsodzo, chief executive of the Zimbabwe cannabis financing startup, Six Weed, which lends up to $3000 per farmer to grow cannabis.

"To grow cannabis, farmers pay up to 40% in bank interest for loans. For cannabis, we don't charge anything above 5% in interest. We simply ask farmers to sell us the cannabis exclusively, at a premium price."

Global tobacco hiccups

Zimbabwe's future wealth from the traditional tobacco crop is even more grim considering the global anti-tobacco spirit in foreign countries. For example, New Zealand, the end buyer of Zimbabwe's tobacco, is readying a ban on tobacco for future generations. Switzerland, an essential buyer of Zimbabwe's tobacco, has recently okayed a  near-total ban on tobacco advertising.

"Make no mistake, tobacco profits will seriously decline someday," says Shamiso Mupara, an ecologist in Zimbabwe. "Farmers are insuring themselves with cannabis. There's no price for guessing why."

Zimbabwe is already making reasonable steps into the cannabis value chain. In 2021, Zimbabwe shipped its first batch of industrial hemp to the high-paying EU market. 30 tons were shipped to Switzerland according to revelations bz says Zorodzai Maroveke, head of the Zimbabwe Industrial Hemp Trust. Switzerland is expecting another 20 tons of hemp from Zimbabwe this year. 

In Guruve, a large district where tobacco used to be the mainstay of the economy since the 70s, corporations from Canada are putting perimeters on virgin land to grow and harvest high-grade cannabis for shipment abroad.

"Compared to cannabis, the drawback of tobacco is it gobbles large amounts of natural forest to burn the fire and dry it. Cannabis needs no such waste," says Gefty Mawachi, a geography teacher in Zimbabwe and conservation advocate.

Bio: Ray Mwareya is a freelance writer for Cannabis Culture. Deogracias Kalima is a freelance writer for China Dialogue and The Ecologist.