Revenues from Mozambique’s tobacco exports fell by half year-on-year in Q1

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Revenues from Mozambique’s tobacco exports fell by half year-on-year in Q1

12:53 CAT | 23 Sep 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

Revenues from Mozambican tobacco exports fell 48% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2024, totalling US$31.9 million, according to official data accessed by Lusa today.

According to a balance of payments report from the Bank of Mozambique, exports of Mozambican tobacco, one of the country’s main crops, totalled US$60.2 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Overall, in 2024, this export revenue rose to US$217.2 million, the highest figure in at least five years, according to the Mozambican central bank’s records.

The Bank of Mozambique’s most recent report states that the reduction in revenues from tobacco exports in the first quarter of this year “is primarily due to a drop in export volume of approximately 60%.”

In a budget execution report for the first half of 2025, the Mozambican government acknowledged several impacts on tax revenues, including the “reduction in national tobacco production with the departure of the BAT company to South Africa.”

In the 2022–2023 agricultural year, Mozambique had a tobacco cultivation area of 76,850 hectares, producing 65,856 tons of tobacco, a 15% decrease compared to the previous year.

For the 2023–2024 marketing year, the government previously projected an area of 129,321 hectares and production of 81,223 tons.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report, released in 2023, stated that Mozambique had the eighth-largest tobacco cultivation area in the world. With an estimated 91,469 hectares cultivated with tobacco, Mozambique was the third-largest producer in the African region, after Zimbabwe (112,770 hectares) and Malawi (100,962).

Brazil, with the third-largest cultivated area of 357,230 hectares, and Mozambique are the only countries in the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) referenced in the WHO report.

The document identified the 50 countries with the largest cultivation areas of this plant, once classified as medicinal and currently the target of criticism and political measures against its widespread use.

Source: Lusa