Zimbabwe tobacco still traded in USD

Zimbabwe's Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) said Friday that all transactions in tobacco marketing will be conducted in the U. S. dollar, leaving no room for other currencies allowed as legal tender for Africa's major tobacco-producing country, which no longer has its own currency. TIMB chief executive Andrew Matibiri told Xinhua that tobacco marketing in the country was guided by a 2004 statutory instrument that stipulated that all transactions have to be conducted in the U.S. dollar. As such, all tobacco buyers had been observing the rule and that no single buyer had asked for permission to use any other currency, he said. Following the demise of its currency by hyperinflation, the Zimbabwe government in 2009 introduced multiple currencies such as the United States dollar, South African Rand, British Pound and the Botswana Pula to circulate and become official tender in the country. But poor export performance and lack of foreign direct investment in the country over the past few years have spawned a serious liquidity crunch that has affected not only government cash flows but the viability of industry. In January this year, the government introduced new currencies into the basket in a bid to ease the liquidity crunch and attract more foreign investment from some of the countries that have growing economic ties with Zimbabwe. Among the currencies introduced were the Chinese yuan, the Japanese yen, the Australian dollar and the Indian rupee. With most buyers of Zimbabwean tobacco being Chinese, it had been expected that the circulation of the Chinese currency in Zimbabwe would be greatly enhanced by the tobacco sales which began mid last month. Matibiri said while individual farmers were free to arrange with their banks if they wanted to be paid in other currencies, the U.S. dollar remained the official currency in tobacco purchases. China has been the single largest buyer of Zimbabwean tobacco for more than five years now and has been increasingly playing a significant role in supporting production of the crop, which remains Zimbabwe's major foreign currency earner. China last year bought almost half of Zimbabwe's 153.3 million kg of tobacco that was exported after purchasing 60.3 million kg valued at 475.6 million U.S. dollars. In total, Zimbabwe raked in 877.4 million dollars from tobacco export last year.