adminThe floors open on Wednesday next week.
The 25 000 farmers are expected to turn up at the floors despite not registering and cause confusion and congestion. Scenes of farmers spending days sleeping in the open at the auction floors will continue.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri yesterday said the situation will result in queues at the auction floors as farmers bring tobacco that has not been booked.
He said that only 35 000 farmers had registered with TIMB as per the regulations. There were 66 000 registered growers last year.
The number of tobacco farmers has ballooned as more farmers joined the rush, especially in the wake of the land reforms.
Tobacco farmers pay a registration fee of US$10 before the start of every season. Late registration attracts a penalty of US$40.
“We are failing to understand why the farmers are finding it difficult to register yet we advise them during every marketing season to register for the next season as soon as they get their payments,” said Dr Matibiri.
“TIMB even introduced mobile registration services to take care of those farmers who may find it difficult to come to Harare, but it seems they are not readily using the facility.”
By end of January, a total of 15 949 A1, 1 989 A2, 11 898 communal, 933 large-scale commercial and 3 965 small-scale commercial tobacco farmers had been registered. A total of 56 369ha of tobacco had also been planted during the same period.
Dr Matibiri said the majority of farmers who failed to register were citing lack of cash.
This has prompted TIMB to introduce the stop-order option in which they deduct the cash from farmers’ earnings at marketing.
“The situation is likely to see more farmers also coming to the floors without prior booking of their tobacco, which naturally causes delays in serving them,” he said.
“Of course, they can register when they come to the floors but it is only proper for them to do so before coming to enable us and the buyers to make the appropriate preparations.”
Dr Matibiri said TIMB had licensed 18 buyers this season that they have advised to be consistent with their payment methods and to give good prices to the farmers.
This year four floors will open on the first day unlike last season when only one, the Tobacco Sales Floor, was open.
Online Reporter