Ethical Holdings
Ethics · Impact · Excellence
Impact The measure
The measure of this group is not the leaf, it is the people the leaf pays. More than 10,000 smallholder farmers financed, in an industry where smallholders now grow most of the national crop.
Industry figures: TIMB / Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, 2025 marketing season. Farmer count is Ethical Leaf Tobacco's own.
Sustainability
Tobacco curing drives a real share of Zimbabwe's deforestation, so fuel matters. Our growers cure on coal and plantation timber in line with the industry's Sustainable Afforestation Association, which has planted more than 23,000 hectares of dedicated woodlots since 2013.
Our contracts follow the Agricultural Labour Practices code enforced across Zimbabwean tobacco with the ECLT Foundation: no child labour, fair working conditions, and protective equipment in the barn and the field.
Extension officers train every financed grower in good agricultural practice: soil care, safe chemical handling, water stewardship and curing that wastes less fuel. Knowledge outlasts any one season's loan.
Instant bank-integrated settlement and a 30-minute sales sheet at the Ethical Sales Floor. When the grower is paid fairly and fast, the whole system stays honest.
Growers In their words
Inputs are provided on time.
ELT makes payments on time.
ELT buys tobacco at competitive prices.
News
Officially opened by Deputy Minister Hon. V. Haritatos on 24 March 2026, with more than 2,200 bales laid on opening day. Zimbabwe's third licensed auction floor, in the group's tenth year.
Ethical Holdings starts producing cigarettes under a toll manufacturing arrangement at 8 million sticks a month, in support of the Government's Tobacco Value Transformation Plan.
The four-tier input facility that became ELT's flagship: Gold at 1,000kg and above, Diamond at 700kg, Silver at 500kg, Bronze under 500kg.
Check the Gold Class tier your season unlocks, then start an application in minutes.