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Edgar Vhera Agriculture Specialist Writer
DESPERATE farmers could be losing thousands of United States dollars’ worth of tobacco amid reports that phony buyers have descended on some communal areas where they are buying even ungraded tobacco for less than a dollar per kilogramme.
The 2023 tobacco marketing season officially begins today.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) had still not commented on the matter at the time of going to the press.
Recent WhatsApp posts on a farmers’ group – Tobacco Farmers Talk (TFT) indicate that there are some buyers currently prowling Mashonaland Central and West provinces buying tobacco from farmers for a song.
Group Administrator Mr Phineas Mukomberanwa posted a message titled ‘Makoronyera and side marketing alert’ in which he urged farmers to be wary of the unscrupulous buyers and reminded other farmers that tobacco is only sold at auction or contract floors.
“As auction floors open today, a lot of people are coming up with various schemes to fleece farmers of their hard-earned cash,” he said.
Mr Mukomberanwa revealed that some farmers were getting as little as US$50 for 75 kilogrammes of ungraded tobacco while the graded leaf was fetching between US$0, 10 and US$2 per kilogramme for good quality crop.
He said although farmers might be in dire need of instant cash, they were being short-changed, as they could get more from proper marketing of their crop at the floors.
“Farmers are breaking the law, which requires all tobacco to be sold on auction or contract floors depending on source of funding. This is side marketing, which is also illegal,” added Mr Mukomberanwa.
He urged farmers to reveal the buyers’ identities together with vehicle registration details to the TIMB’s inspectorate department.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association Chairman Mr George Seremwe said there was need to nip the practice in the bud, as it was counterproductive.
“It’s a sad and unfortunate development coming against a background of the unavailability of a fall-back position for farmers in case of impromptu monetary needs, as they wait for their earnings from the crop.
“Growers need to be assisted financially for sustenance and productiveness to curtail machinations for side-marketing,” said Mr Seremwe.
Tobacco Farmers Union Trust president Mr Victor Mariranyika called for the urgent rolling out of an educational campaign on the ills of the practice while appealing to buyers to give farmers decent prices.
“This is a sad situation being instigated by a group of people that needs to be arrested, as they are conning desperate farmers. The prices they are offering are way below the production cost of US$3, 33 for every kilogramme of consumable tobacco,” said Mr Mariranyika.
Mr Mariranyika said both the buyer and farmer must be arrested for sabotaging the growth of the tobacco sector.
The unscrupulous buyers regrade and pack the tobacco before sending it to the floors where they get higher prices.
Tobacco Farmers Union Trust vice president Mr Edward Dune said as a regulator, TIMB had an inspectorate branch adequately armed to deal with such delinquent marketing shenanigans. He expressed his desire for TIMB to act on the matter and bring sanity to tobacco marketing.
Last year the Government crafted Statutory Instrument 077 of 2022, the Tobacco industry and Marketing (Prohibition of Side Marketing) Regulations, which was meant to criminalise side marketing.
Under statutory instrument 077 of 2022 ‘side marketing’ occurs where a contract grower sells contracted tobacco to someone else other than the contractor that supported its production before he has fulfilled his contractual obligations.
It also happens when a buyer buys contracted tobacco prior to the grower extinguishing their votive responsibilities with the contractor.
Lastly, it happens when an auction floor buys contracted tobacco before the grower has extinguished his contractual obligations.
Online Reporter