Four steps, one chain.
From the auction floor to your factory.
We are in the tobacco value chain from the sales floor onwards. Buying, processing, blending and export - each step feeds the next, and a gap anywhere shows up everywhere.
1.
Buying
Zimbabwe's selling season opens in March and runs into the middle of the year. Selling happens at licensed auction floors in Harare and at selling points around the growing areas. Every bale is weighed, classified and
ticketed under the eye of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board before it is sold.
Our buyers are on the floor for the season. They work against the orders we hold, not against a general
shopping list. Zimbabwe's grade mark tells you where on the plant a leaf came from, how clean it is, what
colour it is and how it was cured. We read that, we look at the bale, and we buy what the order needs.
Every bale we buy carries a TIMB bale ticket. That ticket records the registered grower, the floor, the sale date and the grade. We keep that record and carry it through the factory to the packed case.
What we look for
- Plant position and style that suit the order, not just a good price.
- Clean, evenly graded bales that will run well through a factory.
- Correct presentation, in hessian or tobacco paper, with no plastic and no foreign matter.
- Consistency across a run of bales, so the blend holds together.
2.
Processing
Cured tobacco arrives dry and brittle, with the blade still attached to a woody stem. A cigarette maker cannot use it in that state. Processing separates the two, standardises the moisture, and packs the result so it can be stored and shipped safely.
What happens on the line
- 1 Receiving. The leaf is received, weighed, sampled and stored.
- 2 Laying the blend. Grades are laid down on the feed line in a fixed ratio, so the blend is built as the tobacco goes in, not mixed afterwards.
- 3 Conditioning. Steam and warm air bring the leaf back to about 17 to 22 percent moisture so it bends instead of shattering.
- 4 Threshing and classifying. The leaf passes through a series of threshers. Each one tears the blade off the stem. After each thresher, an air classifier lifts the light lamina away and drops the heavy stem out to go round again. This repeats until the two are properly separated.
- 5 Redrying. The lamina is dried down and then given moisture back under humid air, so it comes out at a steady level around 11 to 12 percent. That is the level at which tobacco stores for a year without going mouldy and without crumbling.
- 6 Stem line. Stem runs on its own line. It is conditioned, cut to length, dried and graded.
- 7 Packing. Lamina and stem are packed warm and pressed into C48 cases, lined with kraft paper, and marked.
3.
Blending
Most customers do not want one grade. They want a chemistry and a style, delivered the same way every
time. Blending is how we give them that.
You give us the target. We build the blend from the grades we bought, lay it down on the feed line in fixed
proportions, and check it as it runs. The result is one homogeneous product, so case number one and case number four hundred are the same tobacco.
We also blend cutrag. That means taking threshed lamina, cut stem and other components, cutting them and
packing them ready to run straight into a cigarette machine.
4.
Export
Getting the tobacco right is half the job. Getting it onto the agreed vessel with a complete set of papers is the other half.
- Cases are stored in a dry, dark, secure warehouse and monitored for pests.
- A sample is drawn from the packed lot and sent to you. The lot is held until you release it.
- Containers are checked clean, dry, sound and free of odour before stuffing. Cases are loaded by hand so the packaging is not damaged.
- Documents travel with the goods.
Documents we prepare for every shipment
- Commercial invoice and packing list
- Bill of lading
- Phytosanitary certificate for the consignment
- Certificate of origin, preferential or ordinary
- Fumigation certificate where you or your country require one
- TIMB export permit and the customs export entry