Maputo, Mozambique — The director general General Director of the Zambezi Development Planning Office (GPZ), Sergio Vieira, has expressed hopes that tobacco leaf production in the western Mozambican province of Tete would reach 10,000 tonnes in the 2001 crop season.

A yield of 10,000 tonnes is considered to be the threshold that would make the construction of a tobacco processing factory viable.

Mozambican tobacco is currently being processed in Malawi due to the low production and lack of local processing units.

Vieira said that it was necessary to increase production of tobacco leaves in Mozambique, so that the country can free itself from dependence on the Malawian factories. About 8,000 tonnes were produced in 2000.

Last year, the Malawian authorities banned the import of foreign tobacco leaf, in what was regarded as an attempt to protect low quality Malawian tobacco against competition from the higher quality Mozambican product.

The ban ended after about one month thanks to the personal intervention by Malawian President Bakili Maluzi.

Companies owned by Malawians produce most of the tobacco in Mozambique. Mozambique Leaf Tobacco and Tabacos de Tete are the major companies.

A source in Mozambique Leaf Tobacco told the national news agency (AIM) that the company had invested one million US dollars, and employs 150 full-time workers.

He added that, taking into account the peasant growers and their families, the company's activities benefit about 60,000 people.