HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday commissioned a US$100 million state-of-the-art tobacco processing plant built by Cut Rag Processors, a company owned by businessman Simon Rudland, praising the investment as proof of Zimbabwe’s “industrial resurgence” and growing private sector confidence.
Speaking at the factory, Mnangagwa said the Second Republic was committed to creating a predictable and transparent business climate that rewards enterprise and innovation.
“We are entrenching a business operating environment that is consistently predictable and transparent, where enterprise and innovation are rewarded, and industry thrives,” he said.
The president said the government’s local content strategy, centred on value addition, beneficiation and domestic wealth retention, was driving his administration’s push for industrialisation and export-led growth.
“This occasion demonstrates Zimbabwe’s ongoing industrial resurgence and is testament that ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’, anchored by private sector-led growth,” he said.
“Under my leadership, the government has placed industrialisation, modernisation, value addition and export-led growth at the core of our national development agenda…”
Zimbabwe produced a record 355 million kilogrammes of tobacco in 2025, worth US$1.2 billion, but 98 percent of it was exported as raw tobacco.
Mnangagwa said the tobacco industry now sustains more than 160,000 households across the country.
He applauded Cut Rag Processors for answering his call to expand processing capacity and for its “commitment to innovation and sustainability.”
“Since its establishment in 2000 as Zimbabwe’s first independent cut rag and cigarette manufacturing facility, Cut Rag Processors has grown to become one of the leaders in innovation and production excellence,” Mnangagwa said.
“This multi-million-dollar investment reflects the growing confidence which the private sector continues to place in Zimbabwe’s economic transformation agenda.”
He said the new plant’s capacity would consolidate Zimbabwe’s self-sufficiency in tobacco manufacturing and boost the country’s exports of high-value finished products. Mnangagwa also praised the company’s use of energy derived from timber waste, calling it a model for responsible production.
Cut Rag Processors’ new plant is kitted with German and Italian technology. The company is targeting exports to the Asian market.
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