ELT Secures Investment for Gold Class Tobacco Scheme

TOBACCO is Zimbabwe’s top foreign currency earner, accounting for at least a third of the country’s total foreign currency earnings. The Financial Gazette (FG) this week spoke to new player Ethical Leaf Tobacco (ELT) which has made a positive impact on in the sector, FG speaks to ELT Managing Director, Doesmatter Muvimbi (DM) about the company and the tobacco selling season

DM: Ethical Leaf Tobacco is an indigenous tobacco contracting company with a geographic footprint across all tobacco growing regions in Zimbabwe. The company has a team of seasoned agricultural experts at its helm to steer it in the right direction and realize the success of agrarian reform in Zimbabwe. We are driven by the vision of rural empowerment and enhancement of rural livelihoods.

DM: Our strength lies in the (PRS), Price, Rukudzo(Respect) and Service. We offer unparralled service excellence to our farmers through instant offloading and buying of their crop as well as same day payments to farmers. The company boasts of the best customer care team that is trained on a regular basis to maintain the level of excellence we pride ourselves for. The communal farmer has long been looked down upon in the industry and with that in mind ELT has brought a refreshing culture of RESPECT(RUKUDZO) to this marginalized group in the farming community. All ELT employees are mandated to accord RUKUDZO to our farmers which they genuinely deserve. This includes serving them in the field up to the time they sell their tobacco. The smallholder farmer has become the bedrock of Zimbabwean tobacco production they should be accorded the respect that they deserve.

ELT leads in paying top price per each grade. This is made possible through ongoing grading training sessions that we carry out in all regions. We have found that many farmers are not grading their tobacco correctly and are mixing it. This will inevitably lower the price so we have our team that has training programmes for farmers to equip them with the essential knowledge that will help them attain the high prices we are known for. We have in our ranks some of the top leaf technicians in the industry and their primary duty is to ensure high productivity and quality levels amongst our farmers.

Our farmers are encouraged to make sure they have submitted their estimates, renewed their grower numbers for them to timeously be processed. The issues of no estimates, registration renewal and no banking instructions have been a great hindrance to the speedy processing of farmers with that in mind we launched an all-out strategy to inform farmers to have these in order when they deliver.

We provide regular agronomic, service and market updates via our sms platform and radio programs.

The company is also running several promotions for the benefit of our loyal and deserving farmers. These promotions will culminate in a grand draw where lucky farmers will walk away with tractors amongst other prizes.

DM: Contrary to these unfortunate and completely baseless allegations, farmers are flocking to our sales floor with their tobacco, current seasonal statistics show that our volumes and market share have been grown phenomenally and we are receiving an average of 5000 bales per day which goes to show that farmers are more than happy to work with us. As ELT, we operate in full compliance with industry regulatory requirements. We have also recorded very high levels of debt repayment which in turn demonstrates the loyalty that we enjoy from our farmers. The success of the ELT brand has resulted in long delivery queues at the peak of the tobacco season but we have managed to provide speedy offloading and payment for our growers. We offer Rukudzo (Respect), top prices, top service and inputs hence our brand has become the premier brand in Zimbabwean tobacco.

DM: We seek to consolidate the enormous brand equity and market share that we have achieved. We have taken our popular and successful inputs scheme to a whole new level. The company is embarking in a $10 million GOLD CLASS INPUTS SCHEME. The scheme seeks to achieve substantial yield growth through enhanced inputs and agronomic support. The input scheme has been well received by our farmers and we are enjoying the increased volumes due to this as farmers are clamouring to make sure they are registered for it. Our loyal farmers are set to benefit from this massive investment. The Gold Class Scheme is meant to compliment government efforts in boosting agricultural production under the Command Agriculture Scheme. This will undoubtly improve the livelihood of thousands of farmers in Zimbabwe as well as improve the country’s foreign currency earnings.