HARARE- TSL said it is satisfied by rainfall patterns upon which it expects to leverage on to achieve yet another successful financial year in 2018.

Giving his presentation at an AGM in Harare today outgoing CEO Washington Matsaira said the company’s farming operations are recording satisfactory yields and good quality for tobacco, soya and maize defying earlier concerns over delayed rainfall.

At its agric trading operations TSL has enhanced product availability and emphasized that the distribution is key.

The company is in the process of securing sufficient forex for winter cropping inputs. Other developments at the agric operations include the planting of bananas on a new 25 hectares in the eastern region.

TSL is also doing trial runs of peas for export market in a bid to generate forex receipts. Overall the agric business contributes 58% of TSL’s total revenue which is the highest revenue contributor among the group’s 4 business clusters.

The agric business cluster is involved in the auctioning, packaging, production and retailing of agric commodities. The trading arm of the business focuses on the importation, formulation, supply and and distribution of of crop and livestock chemical other agricultural inputs and hardware.

Anchoring this cluster is tobacco related services housing the trademark TSF brand. TSL said it has sufficient hessian stocks to meet greater market demand.

Speaking at the AGM the CEO said the company’s market share of merchant auctioning remains strong and anticipates yet another good tobacco year.

The national tobacco produce is anticipated to reach 200 million kgs in the current year up from 189 in the previous year. The previous year outturn was a decline on the 2016 level which was as a result of incessant rainfalls earlier in 2017.

The share of contract tobacco is expected to increase by 1 percentage point to 83% from 82% in the prior year. This follows an estimated $500 million in contract financing pulled by the merchants. Tobacco raked in $1.2 billion in 2017 and was the second top export product after gold.

In a outlook proposition at the AGM, TSL’s management said it expects a satisfactory performance for the remainder of the first half period.