Top Takeaways:

• Zimbabwe inaugurates a US$100M CRP tobacco plant capable of processing 3,000 tons per month and producing 600 million cigarettes.
• Domestic processors currently handle only 10–15% of Zimbabwe’s crop; TIMB aims to reach 30% by 2030.
• Tobacco production reached a record 354,000 tons in 2025, with export earnings at US$1.4 billion, of which 94% came from unprocessed leaf.

Zimbabwe is working to maximize value from its growing tobacco industry after President Emmerson Mnangagwa opened a US$100 million processing plant in Harare built by Cut Rag Processors (CRP).

The new facility can process 3,000 tons of tobacco each month and produce up to 60,000 master cases of cigarettes — approximately 600 million sticks — making it one of the largest private-sector investments in tobacco manufacturing in the country’s history.

Government officials state that the project tackles a long-standing bottleneck in the supply chain. Although Zimbabwe has 10 licensed cigarette manufacturers that produce about 4.4 billion sticks annually, only 10–15% of the country’s tobacco is processed domestically.

The majority is exported as raw leaf, missing out on billions of dollars in potential value. The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) aims to increase domestic processing to 30%, arguing that the country must shift “from volume to value” if it wants to boost farmer incomes and stabilize foreign exchange earnings.

The urgency is increasing as production climbs. The 2025 harvest reached 354,000 tons, a 53% rise over the previous season and a 92% increase since 2020. TIMB projects output could reach nearly 500,000 tons by 2030 but warns that without significant new processing and manufacturing capacity, the economic advantages will stay limited.

With 94% of Zimbabwe’s US$1.4 billion in tobacco export earnings in 2024 coming from unprocessed leaf, the government states that the current model exports too much value overseas.

The Mnangagwa administration has positioned the CRP plant as a key part of broader efforts to industrialize based on the Food Systems, Agriculture, and Rural Transformation Strategy, which aims to generate US$7 billion in tobacco-sector revenue by 2030.

Officials state that the strategy can only succeed if Zimbabwe significantly increases its ability to cut, blend, and manufacture tobacco products locally. CRP executives mentioned that the new facility is designed to compete directly with foreign processing hubs and will source heavily from Zimbabwean growers.

Mnangagwa called the new plant “a milestone in our journey toward industrializing the tobacco value chain,” while TIMB said additional private-sector investments are expected as companies seek to secure supply from the country’s rapidly growing grower base. Industry insiders anticipate more announcements in 2026 as manufacturers aim to reduce reliance on raw-leaf exports and capture more value domestically.