African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 588 Harare Tobacco Factory

Ernst, the Crown Prince, is busy wrapping up government work at the end of the year, while Constantine, as His Majesty the King of East Africa, recently went out to inspect work, or to relax, after playing with his grandson.

As he gets older, he prefers to go out for a walk. As for dealing with troublesome government affairs, it is better for his son to do it. Of course, what provides Constantine with the conditions to go out is the improvement of transportation conditions in East Africa. In the past, Constantine could only Traveling around the Central Province, you can now go further afield.

Just like this time, he took a special train and went directly to Harare, an upstart city in East Africa, along the East African Central Railway.

 Harare, the capital of Matabele Province, is located near 18 degrees south latitude. Most cities in East Africa are in the southern hemisphere.

It is summer in the southern hemisphere, but the temperature in Harare is only 23 degrees, and the weather is cloudy, similar to the first town, so there is no need to worry about weather and temperature changes.

Therefore, East Africa is a very suitable place for retirement. There is no scorching heat in summer, no severe cold in winter, and it is like spring all year round. Of course, the premise is that the infrastructure conditions are perfect, otherwise it will be very inconvenient for elderly people like Constantine.

 In previous lives, Harare was a relatively well-known summer resort in the world, and many East African cities had this title.

“At present, our city of Harare has become the largest domestic tobacco distribution market in East Africa. Tobacco factories are one of the pillar industries of Harare. The daily tobacco transaction volume exceeds one thousand tons. In the country, only Mombasa and Daré The two open ports in Salaam City can be compared with Harare City.

However, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam focus on the international market, and our Harare city can represent not only the domestic tobacco consumption level, but also the international popularity of East African tobacco. This year our Harare city has More than 10,000 acres of new tobacco fields were opened, but demand still exceeded supply. "The director of Harare Tobacco Factory enthusiastically introduced the prospects of Harare's tobacco industry to Constantine.

“Harare’s tobacco has gained a bit of a reputation now, especially in the German region. I heard that Matabele tobacco has taken a high-end route from the beginning. Now many cigarettes in the German region have to add horseradish. Tabele tobacco leaves are used to enhance the aromatic substances and increase the flavor and taste." Constantine said insightfully.

The representative of Matabele tobacco leaves is "gold leaf". From the beginning, it was a high-end cigarette for the German market, and then transferred from Germany to Eastern Europe, or from East Africa to the Far East.

Germany’s shift to Eastern Europe is based on the Western European industrial powers’ admiration for these semi-industrial or agricultural countries. In addition, East African tobacco products are of excellent quality, so they are very popular.

The reason for exporting to the Far East is that it has the largest independent market in the world besides the United Kingdom and the United States. The United Kingdom led a large family of colonies to boycott East African products, and the United States itself is a major tobacco country, and many Caribbean countries and Latin America in the south are also rich in tobacco. tobacco.

 So the market in East Africa has always been divided into five parts: Germany, Eastern Europe, the Arab region, the Far East and others.

The trade volume between the Far East and East Africa is pretty good, but tobacco is not in this category, because the Far East itself also has areas suitable for tobacco cultivation, and the Huaihai Commercial Zone is in this category.

 The biggest contributors to East Africa's economy are actually Eastern European and Arab countries. For these countries, East Africa's products are very competitive.

 First of all, Eastern European countries have high latitudes and lack tropical cash crops. East Africa is the closest tropical cash crop producing area to Eastern Europe. A large part of East Africa's fruits, vegetables and cash crops are digested by Eastern European countries headed by Tsarist Russia.

Although Germany is a big seller of agricultural products in East Africa, its exports to East Africa are also large, especially industrial products and equipment.

As for Tsarist Russia, which has the highest degree of industrialization in Eastern Europe, its industrial products are actually only slightly better than those of East Africa in terms of categories. However, their geographical location has a huge demand for tropical cash crops, so East Africa’s exports to Tsarist Russia are far greater than its imports.

Take bananas for example. The Somali production area is the closest banana production area to Eastern European countries, so importing from East Africa is almost the only option. Although Somalia has an arid climate, its area is large enough, and it is irrigated by the Juba and Shabelle rivers. Its banana production is very impressive, and it can supply a large amount of the European market. It already has the strength to compete with the Caribbean island countries.

As for the Arab countries, in addition to being close to them, East Africa enjoys "equal" treatment from East Africa. Just as Latin American countries now feel that the United States is very "just, free, and democratic", now the United States is It is really ironic that the "good guys" who fought for freedom in the Americas and fought against the bad guys such as Britain and France were the same in East Africa in the eyes of Arab countries.

Furthermore, the environment in Arab countries is already relatively harsh, with almost everything lacking, and now oil has not been discovered, so cheap East African goods are warmly welcomed in the Arab region.

 Hence, the Arab countries and the Far Eastern Empire are not only markets for agricultural products in East Africa, they are also important markets for industrial products in East Africa.

The same is true when it comes to tobacco. East Africa is the closest tobacco producing area to them. Large quantity, high quality and low price are the characteristics of East African tobacco.

Moreover, the tobacco exported from East Africa, packaged by Heichingen Tobacco Company, looks very classy and has a unique industrial elegance, so it is very popular.

This era is different from later generations. Everyone is particularly obsessed with industrial products. Being able to use industrial products is a symbol of high-quality life, including food.

The director of Harare Tobacco Factory responded to Constantine: "Your Majesty, our Harare tobacco has been cultivated for several years. Not only has the quality been guaranteed, but we are also researching new varieties to ensure that Tobacco quality while further increasing tobacco yield."

“Your factory seems to be very large, and this is my first time coming into contact with a tobacco factory,” Constantine said.

The director of the Harare Tobacco Factory said with great pride: "Your Majesty the King, our factory is completely designed by the architects and tobacco process designers hired by the Hechingen Tobacco Company from Europe, so the factory looks very elegant. The working environment is also very comfortable, and every machine or room is scientifically and rationally laid out to achieve the optimal solution, so workers can achieve the highest efficiency in an orderly manner, which greatly increases the output of our Harare tobacco factory."

As he spoke, he came to the track and said: "Our raw materials are stacked by workers, and then run through the machine to enter the next process. The entire factory is clean and tidy, and everyone performs their duties and works according to the process. In such an atmosphere, The orderliness of more than 800 people and not chaos is inseparable from the fact that our factory followed expert arrangements from the beginning."

"Of course, we will also encounter some practical problems. For example, the design of our factory was a bit conservative at the beginning, which made us a little nervous now. So we are adding new equipment, so we have to open a new workshop, and the original layout will be changed. Being disrupted, and European technology iterating very quickly, I don’t know how many years it will take for our equipment to fall behind again.”

 This worry is somewhat unnecessary, because the Hechingen Tobacco Company in the tobacco industry is originally a monopoly group, controlling most of the voice in tobacco in Germany, East Africa, and Eastern Europe, and also controls upstream technology.

Even if tobacco production equipment is updated in the future, it will not affect Hechingen Tobacco Company. It can maintain its oligarchic status in the industry and maintain its technological advantages through various means.

As the boss, Ernst will definitely not let the Hechingen Tobacco Company technically choke East Africa.

It sounds strange, but there is indeed room for maneuver, because Harare City Tobacco Factory is a state-owned enterprise, and Hesingen Tobacco Company is a private enterprise. Harare City Tobacco Factory is responsible for the production end, while Hesingen Tobacco Company is responsible for research and development. and sales.

 So the two have a cooperative relationship, but the initiative is in the hands of the Hechingen Tobacco Company, and the Harare Tobacco Factory is only responsible for the production side of the processing area. For example, tobacco cultivation is under the jurisdiction of the agricultural department.

 (End of this chapter)