The seed bed
Seed and nursery inputs reach the grower before planting. Healthy seedlings raised on ELT credit, with no upfront cash.
Ethical Holdings · Harare · established 2015
Seed to
smoke.
For the farmer.
For the leaf.
For the floor.
For the smoke.
One unbroken cycle, from the seed to the smoke. floor. market. star.
Ethical Holdings finances more than 10,000 smallholder farmers, trades graded leaf to three continents, runs Zimbabwe's newest auction floor, and rolls a cigarette of our own.
Kutengesa neHungwaruselling with excellence
No 105 Dartford Road, Willowvale, Harare, Zimbabwe
01 The group
Ethical Holdings was founded in 2015 to answer one question: how far can a smallholder go when capital is never the blocker? Ten years on, the answer stretches from the seed bed to the cigarette.
What began as bridging finance for tobacco growers is now a full agribusiness group: contract farming and agri-finance through Ethical Leaf Tobacco, a leaf trade division exporting to Europe, Asia and Africa, the Ethical Sales Floor auction house, and Stellar Tobacco Company, maker of STAR cigarettes.
Beyond the leaf, the group runs the Zimbabwe Cotton Consortium for smallholder cotton, and Ethical Micro-Insurance for the people who grow it all. The vision has not moved: to become Africa's agribusiness unicorn.
10,000+
smallholder farmers financed
9,000m²
trading floor at the Ethical Sales Floor
3
continents importing our graded leaf
8M
cigarettes a month, STAR production capacity
02 Four pillars, one leaf
Everything the leaf needs, under one roof.
01
ELT Contract Business
ELT Contract Business
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Seed bed, inputs, working capital and agronomy for more than 10,000 smallholder growers. The whole season financed, nothing paid upfront.
02
ELT Leaf Trade
ELT Leaf Trade
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Buying, grading and processing Zimbabwean tobacco since 2019, exported to Europe, Asia and Africa.
03
Ethical Sales Floor
Ethical Sales Floor
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Zimbabwe's third licensed tobacco auction floor: 7,000 bales a day, instant bank-integrated payment, opened March 2026.
04
STAR Cigarettes
STAR Cigarettes
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Stellar Tobacco Company, a wholly owned subsidiary, rolls the leaf we grow into Zimbabwe's own cigarette. Toasted, Menthol and Virginia blends.
Also in the group: the Zimbabwe Cotton Consortium, Ethical Micro-Insurance, Ethical Transport and the Ethical Farm Shop.
The journey
01 / 07
Walk the leaf the whole way.
Seven stages, one unbroken line. Keep scrolling.
Inputs & planting
Fertilizer, chemicals and curing fuel delivered to the farm gate. The grower plants now and settles at the floor.
The growing season
ELT agronomists work the season beside the farmer, from transplant to topping. Guidance, not guesswork.
The cure
We fund the fuel and the barns and guide the cure, protecting leaf quality so the crop earns its best grade.
The auction floor
Every financed crop has a guaranteed route to the Ethical Sales Floor: a sales sheet in 30 minutes, instant payment.
Leaf trade
Bought, graded and processed in country, then exported to buyers across Europe, Asia and Africa.
The smoke
Stellar Tobacco Company rolls the same leaf into STAR, Zimbabwe's own cigarette. The full value of the crop stays home.
04 Stellar Tobacco Company
A star is rolled.
Barely a tenth of Zimbabwe's record tobacco crop is value-added at home. Stellar Tobacco Company, a wholly owned Ethical Holdings subsidiary, is changing that: STAR cigarettes, made from the leaf our own farmers grow, at a capacity of 8 million sticks a month.
S/01
Toasted
The signature blend. Deep, warm and slow-cured, built on the flue-cured Virginia leaf our growing regions are known for.
S/02
Menthol
The same Zimbabwean leaf, finished cool and clean. Blended for the region's most asked-for menthol taste.
S/03
Virginia
Bright, golden and true to the leaf. A straight Virginia blend from the auction floors we know bale by bale.
The STAR story
STAR is marketed to adult smokers only.
05 Sustainability
Grown so it can be grown again.
Tobacco only has a future here if the land, the trees and the people who work them have one too.
Woodlots, not wild forest
Curing fuel comes from coal and dedicated plantations in line with the industry's Sustainable Afforestation Association, which has planted more than 23,000 hectares of woodlots since 2013.
No child in our fields
Our contracts follow the Agricultural Labour Practices code enforced across Zimbabwean tobacco: no child labour, fair conditions, protective equipment in barn and field.
Taught, not just financed
Every financed grower gets extension training in good agricultural practice: soil care, safe chemical handling, water stewardship and curing that wastes less fuel.
A fair, transparent floor
The Ethical Sales Floor settles growers instantly through bank integration, with a sales sheet inside 30 minutes. Fair price discovery is a sustainability issue too.
06 Leadership
The people who know the leaf.
Ethical Holdings is led by a team that has carried the smallholder every step from the seed bed to the floor.
07 Partners in the journey
Nobody grows alone.
Tobacco Industry & Marketing Board
Ministry of Lands & Agriculture
10,000+ smallholder growers
International leaf buyers, three continents
OLAM International, consortium cotton
Rukudzo Kumurimi
The Ethical Sales Floor was licensed by TIMB in January 2026 and officially opened by Deputy Minister Hon. V. Haritatos in March 2026.
Every farmer deserves a fair floor.
If you grow tobacco in Zimbabwe, the whole season can be financed: inputs, agronomy, and a guaranteed route to market. Check the Gold Class tier your yield unlocks, then apply in minutes.