Production costs and profits 



Total growing and curing costs were reported by the growers to run from about $280 

 to $360 per acre. More conservative authorities estimate the average cost about $250 to 

 $330 per acre. An official of the Rhodesian Tobacco Association, in a speech given in 

 Rhodesia in March 1963, stated that this year's production cost might be as high as 29 

 cents per pound for cured leaf. If one uses these figures as a guide for making an esti- 

 mate the average grower might have net returns of $100 to $120 per acre. With such net 

 returns per acre, an average tobacco producer might have a net income of $7,000 to 

 $8,500 from the tobacco enterprise. This year (1962-63 crop) the average yield dropped, 

 tending to reduce net returns. However, prices were good. On some farms, profits from 

 tobacco have been used to start or expand livestock and other enterprises. Clearing and 

 breaking of land for tobacco has also opened the way for connmercial corn production 

 and for other crops. 



Tobacco Research 



Tobacco research in Southern Rhodesia has been concerned mainly with flue-cured. 

 The Kutsaga Research Station near Salisbury is the main one, although tobacco studies are 

 carried on also at the Trelawney Station, about 65 miles northwest of Salisbury, and at the 

 Broken Hill Station located about 85 miles north of Lusaka in Northern Rhodesia. Research 

 on burley type tobacco is being expanded. 



Since 1955, tobacco research has been operated on a Federal basis and this is ad- 

 ministered by a Tobacco Research Board operating in both Southern and Northern Rho- 

 desia. (Separate tobacco research has been carried on in Nyasaland, as well.) The former 

 has been financed by the Rhodesian Tobacco Association (RTA) and the governnnent. RTA 

 finances about 75 percent of the expenditure from its levy on tobacco sales, and the 

 balance of the budget comes from government grants. The current 5-year research pro- 

 gram is estimated to cost a total of $2,800,000. 



Marketing 



Growers of flue-cured tobacco in Southern Rhodesia pack it in bales, weighing on 

 the average 180 pounds, for transport and sale. The bales are wrapped in treated paper 

 and have an outer covering of hessian (burlap). The tobacco is pressed and baled on the 

 farms. Grading is handled on the farms or in connmercial grading establishments. 



Tobacco may be hauled to the Salisbury Auction Market by the farmers' own truck, 

 but some is also trucked by commercial haulers or by "railroad lorries," overland 

 trucks operated in conjunction with the railroad. Some growers, who live near the rail- 

 road, ship their tobacco by rail. 



Compulsory auctions as a marketing device are almost 30 years old, having been 

 introduced in Southern Rhodesia in 1936, and in Nyasaland in 1938. 



All Southern Rhodesian flue-cured tobacco is sold in Salisbury. There the tobacco is 

 auctioned on one of the three auction floors, which are located on the outskirts of the 

 city. The auctions are patterned after those in the United States. (Tobacco grown in the 

 western and central areas of Northern Rhodesia is also marketed on the Salisbury auc- 

 tions. Tobacco from the Eastern Province of Northern Rhodesia is marketed on the 

 auctions in Limbe, Nyasaland.)' 



Most of Rhodesias tobacco goes into export channels. The flue-cured tobacco sold on 

 the Salisbury floors and destined for export goes by railroad to the seaport of Beira, 

 Mozambique, where it is transferred to ocean-going ships. 



»Burley tobacco was sold by private sale through the 1962-63 crop. Beginning with the 1963-64 crop, Southern Rhodesia's burley 

 is to be sold over the auctions in Salisbury. 



Turkish tobacco grown in Southern Rhodesia is sold by private sale. 



