Burley tobacco sales begin

The selling season of burley started last  Tuesday. Statistics from the Tobacco  Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) show that the burley sales opened with low volumes compared to last year when $341 640 was realised from 260 812 kg during the same period.

 

The season opened with an average price of $2,35 per kg compared to an average price of $1,31 a kg in 2011.

TIMB also indicated that the first two days of the marketing season had seen 123 bales of burley being laid compared to 4 474 bales laid last year.

All the bales laid at the auction floors on the first two days of the season were sold while last year 4 386 bales were sold.

Agronomist and tobacco expert Mr Thomas Nherera said this year stakeholders were anticipating low sales of burley not to exceed 200 000 kg because the crop had been grown in limited areas in the previous farming season.

“In the last marketing season, the average price was far much lower than farmers’ expectations.

“As a result production has been reduced in most areas due to non-viability of the crop,” he said, adding that if the market continued with favourable prices that might lure back more farmers into growing burley.

He said due to unfavourable prices at the auction floors in the last season a  number of farmers have shifted from growing the crop resulting in low deliveries to the floors.

Mr Nherera said the burley marketing season comes later when selling of flue-cured tobacco had started because burley  was naturally a rain-fed crop whose harvesting and curing takes longer than the latter.

Burley is used in pipe smoking while flue-cured tobacco is used in manufacturing cigarettes.

“Flue cured tobacco is irrigated and  this makes its harvesting and curing shorter than burley resulting in its  marketing coming earlier than that of  burley.”

He added that traditionally Zimbabwe has a lower output of burley because of its climatic conditions, which in most parts of the country do not favour burley production.

“The country always has lower burley output compared to flue-cured tobacco because of its climatic condition.

“Zimbabwe’s climatic condition is not favourable for burley as the crop does very well in high rainfall areas that also receive high humidity conditions.

“In the past we have seen burley being grown in Manicaland, mostly in eastern parts of Nyamaropa because the climatic condition is favourable,” he said.