Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
Michael Katambo
Zambia has so far produced 30 million kilogrammes of tobacco in the current marketing season representing a 30 percent increase from the 23 million kilograms produced during the 2016/2017 marketing season.
Agriculture minister Michael Katambo says the production volumes are expected to increase to 30.5 million kilograms by the close of the 2017/2018 marketing season.
Mr. Katambo has however, stated that despite the increase in the production of tobacco, the industry is still lagging behind in comparison with that of regional counterparts such as Malawi and Zimbabwe.
He notes the need for more to be done to ensure that the performance of the industry is as at par with the neighboring countries that produce tobacco.
And the minister has urged all companies that are still withholding levies to quickly remit them to government through the tobacco board of Zambia in accordance with the law.
He says government is ware that framers have remitted tobacco levies to companies that have been buying tobacco yet the companies have not remitted the levies to government.
Mr. Katambo said this in a speech read on his behalf by ministry of agriculture director of agriculture, Alick Daka during the 2017/2018 tobacco marketing review meeting in Lusaka.
And tobacco Board of Zambia chief executive officer, James Kasongo has pledged the board’s commitment to ensuring that it creates an enabling environment for all players in the industry as a way of seeing growth in the industry.