[Here is a stunning proof of exactly what I have been saying for years. You take a handful of skilled White people, and they can cause a Black African country to boom in no time at all. They can do what billions of dollars in foreign AID cannot. Here we see… the collapse of much of Zimbabwe’s farming and industrial sectors, with unemployment exploding to 70%… Just by throwing out the White farmers. Even though these farmers lost much of their assets… They move into neighbouring nations and immediately create an enormous BOOM… just like that. There is no clearer proof, from Mugabe’s failed Communist experiment, of the power of SKILL versus Foreign Aid. Skills… can do… what money cannot. For this reason, the $50 billion which Mandela is begging for Africa… will itself achieve very little. Colonialism… solved the problem of Technical Skills in Africa and that is why Colonialism was a rip roaring financial success. Jan]

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Miklos Marffy lost his home, his farm and his crop two years ago when Zimbabwe’s government seized his land near the northeastern town of Mvurwi. Last year, he grew $460,000 of tobacco in neighboring Zambia after a (96)`(96)`reassuring’ visit from President Levy Mwanawasa.

Zimbabwe’s neighbors are profiting from President Robert Mugabe’s land
redistribution program, which has ravaged the world’s second-biggest tobacco export industry since 2000. More than 340 commercial farmers have relocated to Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania, creating jobs and boosting exports from some of the world’s poorest countries.

(96)`The entry of Zimbabwean farmers into Zambia is a blessing to agriculture,’ says Chance Kabaghe, 50, the chairman of Zambia Seed Co., who was deputy agriculture minister until last month and lives in the capital, Lusaka.(96)`They bring with them the latest technology and knowledge.’
Universal Corp., the world’s biggest tobacco-leaf merchant, and No. 3
Standard Commercial Corp. are backing the farmers so they can get loans from banks such as Barclays Plc and Standard Chartered Plc. The aid helps ensure supplies of the flue-cured tobacco used to flavor cigarette brands such as Reynolds American Inc.’s Camel and Altria Group Inc.’s Marlboro, after Zimbabwe’s production fell by three-quarters in the past four years.
Zimbabwe last year accounted for about 4 percent of global exports of the
highest quality flue-cured tobacco, which cigarette makers buy for
characteristics such as color and oil content. Five years ago, Zimbabwe had
about 20 percent of world exports, second only to Brazil.

(96)`Big Imbalance’
Farmers received an average of $2.02 a kilogram (2.2 pounds) for leaf sold
at Zimbabwe’s annual tobacco auctions last year, up from $1.69 in 2000,
according to the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, based in the capital, Harare.

(96)`Some of the world’s best quality tobacco suddenly disappeared,’ says
Antonio Abrunhosa, chief executive officer of the International Tobacco
Growers Association, based in Castelo Branco, Portugal. (96)`This created a big
imbalance in supply and demand for quality tobacco.’

Farmers have to invest at least $150,000 to buy land, install irrigation
equipment and build the barns and furnaces needed to produce flue-cured
tobacco, and some have borrowed more than $1 million, says Chimwemwe Mtonga, senior manager of business support at Lusaka-based Barclays Bank Zambia Plc.

Lower grade burley and fire-cured tobacco, which are cheaper to produce,
garner lower prices.

(96)`Mentoring System’
Richmond, Virginia-based Universal and Wilson, North Carolina-based
Standard Commercial are contracting farmers to grow the tobacco at
guaranteed prices, helping them win loans from banks such as Standard
Chartered and Barclays, both of which are based in London. They are also
asking larger farmers to advise smaller growers on sowing, tending and
curing the crop.

(96)`We expect the commercial farmers will provide expertise to small farmers
in a sort of mentoring system,’ says Karen Whelan, a Universal spokeswoman.

(96)`The large-scale growers, many of whom were forced out of Zimbabwe, have
long experience in growing the quality of leaf required in the International market.’

Universal last year bought 15 million kilograms of flue-cured tobacco and
3.5 million tons of burley from 47 large growers in Zambia and 5,515 small
farmers. That compares with 3.1 million kilograms of flue-cured and 1.8
million kilograms of burley in 2000. The company forecasts Zambia will
produce 26.7 million kilograms of tobacco this year.

In Mozambique, Zimbabwe’s neighbor to the east, Universal bought 591,000
kilograms of flue-cured tobacco from 12 large-scale farmers last year. It
bought none in 2000. Universal forecasts tobacco production will rise to 4.3 million kilograms this year.

Malawi Production
Malawi, which juts into Mozambique from the north and shares its western
border with Zambia, produced 23.2 million kilograms of flue-cured tobacco
last year, up from 11.2 million kilograms in 2002, Universal says. The 2005
forecast is for a crop of 30 million kilograms.

The increased purchases in neighboring countries helped make up for the
decline in Zimbabwe. Universal bought about 14 million kilograms of tobacco
in the country last year, down from 100 million kilograms four years
earlier.

Speaking of the farmers who have moved into the surrounding area from
Zimbabwe, Abrunhosa says: (96)`They have been very important in boosting
tobacco production. The economic impact is huge.’

With backing from Standard Commercial and a loan from London- based Standard Chartered, Marffy paid $108,000 for two irrigation pivots, and installed pumps and curing equipment on the 700 hectares (1,730 acres) of land he bought near Mkushi, 100 miles northeast of Lusaka.

Presidential Welcome
Marffy, 48, who lives with his wife and three children in a farmhouse on the property, says he reaped 230,000 kilograms of tobacco last year and plans to grow 300,000 kilograms this year.

In addition to tobacco, the 150 Zimbabwean farmers who have moved to Zambia
grow soy, wheat and flowers. Some export seed corn to Zimbabwe, once an
exporter of crop seeds. Marffy grows soybeans for sale on the market and
corn to help feed his workers.

Mwanawasa in August met with about 20 former Zimbabwean farmers at the
Mkushi Country Club and promised that the government would obey the law and
respect their property rights.

(96)`President Mwanawasa visited us and told us that we should treat Zambia as
our home,’ Marffy says. (96)`It was really reassuring to have the president
welcome you.’

Tobacco production is helping reduce Zambia’s dependence on copper and
cobalt, which made up more than half of exports last year.

Agriculture now accounts for 17 percent of economic output, Kabaghe says. In 1990, the figure was 12 percent, according to the Washington-based
International Monetary Fund. Tobacco production has more than tripled in the past four years, and the government forecasts exports of the crop will total $40 million this season.

Skills and Experience
(96)`Large-scale farming is beginning to pick up, and that is helping diversify
the economy,’ says Jan Duvenage, an economist at Standard Bank Group Ltd.
in Johannesburg. (96)`Africa needs skills. The Zimbabwean farmers have skills
and the experience of running large farms.’

Zambia is the 10th-poorest nation among 134 countries ranked by the
Washington-based World Bank, with per-capita gross national income of $770.
About 73 percent of Zambia’s people live in poverty, and life expectancy at
birth is 33.4 years.

Marffy says he employs as many as 200 people and pays them at least 6,500
kwacha ($1.42) a day. That’s about twice the minimum wage for non-union
workers.

(96)`In the past, it was easy to find farmworkers. All you had to do was walk
to the main road and recruit some people,’ says Clifford Musonda, 31, a
farmworker in Mkushi. (96)`Now it’s not possible because everybody has jobs.
The only ones who don’t have jobs are the lazy ones.’

Nigeria Next?

While Zimbabwe’s neighbors have been the first to benefit, other countries
are keen to follow.

The Nigerian government is offering 1,000 hectares of land and loans of as
much as $1 million to farmers who relocate to the West African country from
Zimbabwe, says Bruce Gemmill, whose farm was seized in 2002.

(96)`I am looking at Nigeria,’ says Gemmill, 70, who grew tobacco and fruit on
his property 70 miles east of Harare. (96)`The government there has been
helpful. It has gone out of its way.’

Zimbabwe, once southern Africa’s second-biggest economy after South Africa,
has been hit hard by the departure of its farmers. (But they won’t be rushing to S Africa for some very obvious reasons)

The land seizures, which began in 2000 as Mugabe pledged to return land
stolen from blacks in colonial times, have shut down most of Zimbabwe’s
4,000 commercial farms, displaced many of the country’s 310,000 farmworkers
and deepened a six-year recession.

Zimbabwe’s Recession
The economy shrank 30 percent in the five years to 2004, according to the
IMF. Unemployment is more than 70 percent, and the United Nations’ World
Food Program estimates that 41 percent of the country’s 11.8 million people
may not have enough to eat until the next harvest in April and May.

A 2003 study commissioned by Mugabe found that 127,000 families had moved
onto the confiscated farms. While some of the resettled farmers have taken
up tobacco production, quality and production have fallen.

The record 237 million kilograms of tobacco harvested in 2000 were grown by
8,531 farmers, compared with the 12,700 who grew 68 million kilograms last
year, according to the Web site of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association.
Universal expects Zimbabwe to produce 90 million kilograms of tobacco this
year, while the government forecasts 115 million kilograms.
The small growers favored by Mugabe reap about 900 kilograms from each of
their one-hectare plots. Commercial farmers produce more than 3,000
kilograms per hectare on 45-hectare plantations, says Rodney Ambrose, CEO of Zimbabwe Tobacco.

(96)`Massive Decline’
Production of corn, wheat, soy, cut flowers and paprika has also slumped.
Zimbabwe, which once ran the highest-yielding corn farms in southern Africa, is importing the grain from South Africa, Zambia, Argentina and the U.S. (96)`In the commercial sector there has been a massive decline, as much as 90 percent in some crop sectors like soy and corn,’ says Kuda Ndoro, an economist at the Commercial Farmers Union in Harare.

Agriculture now makes up 14 percent of Zimbabwe’s economy, down from 18
percent in 2000, the union’s figures show.

Even if Zimbabwe were to change its policies, many farmers say they won’t
return.

(96)`At 48, I am getting too old for a new start,’ says Marffy, who moved to
Zimbabwe with his family in 1960 after their farm in Hungary was confiscated by the socialist government. (96)`Whatever happens in Zimbabwe, whether there is a new regime or not, I can’t go back, even though I love the country so much.’

To contact the reporter on this story:
Antony Sguazzin in the Johannesburg bureau
or [email protected]

To contact the editor of this story:
Stephen Farr at [email protected]