Zim Tobacco Buyers Need Vaccination Proof For Licence

Bloomberg News

Zimbabwe’s tobacco regulator requires buyers of the crop to be vaccinated against the coronavirus before a license for the 2021 season that starts April 7 is issued.

“We want to make the tobacco markets a place of safety as far as Covid-19 is concerned,” Patrick Devenish, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chairman, said Monday by phone from the capital, Harare.

We are not forcing the uptake of vaccines but encouraging industry-wide participation, he said.

Tobacco is the southern African nation’s biggest agricultural export and earned $782 million in revenue last year, according to central bank data.