This article outlines the historical and contemporary landscape of tobacco production and marketing in Zimbabwe. It highlights patterns of boom and bust dependent on global demand, trading frameworks and degrees of government support to the industry, which are reminiscent of cycles of tobacco production elsewhere in the region. It illustrates at the national and farm level the importance of diversified marketing channels: how the Zimbabwean tobacco industry has twice been at the intersection of two distinctly different global tobacco markets and has, with varying degrees of success, managed to survive and thrive by balancing the competing demands of buyers in these different domains. At the farm level, peasants now also have diversified marketing channels and are able to select between the auction floors and a range of contracting companies. The article outlines a case study of contracting practices in Mashonaland East and highlights that there is currently a lack of functional organisational platforms that can help to redress power imbalances between peasants and contracting companies. It concludes by outlining an incremental approach to setting a regulatory framework that can set sufficient checks and balances for producer associations to hold contracting companies to account.

本文概述了津巴布韦烟草生产和营销的历史和当代景观。它强调了取决于全球需求、贸易框架和政府对该行业的支持程度的繁荣和萧条模式，这让人想起该地区其他地方的烟草生产周期。它在国家和农场层面说明了多元化营销渠道的重要性：津巴布韦烟草业如何两次处于两个截然不同的全球烟草市场的交汇处，并以不同程度的成功通过平衡买家在这些不同领域的竞争需求。在农场层面，农民现在也拥有多元化的营销渠道，可以在拍卖场和一系列承包公司之间进行选择。本文概述了东马绍纳兰地区承包实践的案例研究，并强调目前缺乏有助于纠正农民与承包公司之间权力不平衡的功能性组织平台。最后，它概述了建立监管框架的渐进式方法，该框架可以为生产者协会设置足够的制衡机制，以追究承包公司的责任。