Tobacco production in Mozambique was worth about 4.48 million meticais (about US$70 million) in 2023, up 23 percent year-on-year, according to figures from the country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The double-digit gain comes despite a drop in actual tobacco produced, down 15 percent to 65,856 tonnes in the 2022 to 2023 agricultural year. With 76,850 hectares dedicated to the plant – use of which kills an estimated 8 million people globally each year – Mozambique is the eighth-largest tobacco growing area in the world and the third largest in Africa after Zimbabwe (112,700 hectares) and Malawi (100,982).
The bulk of the world’s tobacco production is in Asia and South America. China leads with over a million hectares dedicated to tobacco production, followed distantly by India (431,146 hectares) and Brazil (357,230).
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More than 3 million hectares are used for tobacco cultivation, spread across over 120 countries, but the three top producers alone account for more than 55 percent of tobacco production globally.
Meanwhile, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa saw considerable growth in tobacco leaf production (up 35.7%) and area under tobacco cultivation (a 19.8% rise) from 2005 to 2020, when both were trending down globally.
The WHO figures, released in May of last year, are part of the “Grow Food, Not Tobacco” campaign, which emphasises the need to expand food production as military conflict and climate change contribute to global food insecurity, while also addressing the significant health and environmental impacts on growers.
