40 000 farmers register to sell tobacco this season

The tobacco-selling season for the irrigated crop begins tomorrow.
In an interview, the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union executive director Mr Paul Zakariya urged tobacco growers to ensure they are registered to facilitate the marketing of the crop to the four auction floors.
“As at the end of last week, about 40 000 farmers of the 60 000 tobacco growers had registered to sell the crop this marketing season.
“As a union, we continue urging the farmers to register their crop this season following the relaxation of the registration deadline by TIMB,” he said.
He said farmers should take advantage of the relaxation of the registration deadline that had been extended until further notice to register their crop.
According to the Tobacco Marketing Act no crop will go under the hammer prior to registration.
Mr Zakariya also encouraged the registered growers to make bookings for delivering the crop at the four auction floors in order to curb congestion.
“In terms of logistics, we are happy that TIMB has set good procedures to facilitate the marketing of the crop.
“The board has made a lot of preparations ahead of the selling season. For example, farmer-training programmes were conducted to improve the quality of tobacco and as a union we are advocating for the buyers to capitalise on adjusting the prices upwards following announcement of floods that hit other tobacco-growing countries such as Brazil. This means our tobacco has to fetch higher prices,” he said.
He said ZFU, through its tobacco producers division, also conducted outreach programmes to acquaint farmers with tobacco growing, handling and marketing.
Mr Zakariya also urged the farmers to deposit their money into their bank accounts after payment for deliveries are made to curb impulse buying that could occur as a result of flea markets that sprout at the auction floors during the marketing season.
This year stakeholders in the tobacco industry project that 150 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf would go under the hammer compared to 132kg sold the previous season.
“This year’s projection seems to be stretchy as output for rain-fed tobacco could be affected largely by the erratic rains the country has experienced during the season.
“Also output could be compromised by shortage of fertilisers on the market,” he said.