HARARE – Adjust Saidi, a foreman at a farm outside Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, paced through rows of tobacco plants.
Desperate to complete the harvest and sell the crop, he pushed workers picking leaves to “hurry it up." Some carried up to 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of leaves, bound by wire, on their shoulders.
Some wore face masks. With most economic activity stalled by a coronavirus lockdown, troubled Zimbabwe last month officially opened the tobacco selling season after a month-long delay.
Tobacco is Zimbabwe’s second biggest foreign currency earner after gold, and it brought in about $750 million last year. Allowing tobacco selling gives the government an opportunity to ease acute foreign currency shortages in a country whose economy had