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Elita Chikwati and Simba Mudzivo Agriculture Reporters
Preparations for the opening of the 2013/14 tobacco selling season are in full swing with farmers expecting firmer prices. Most tobacco growers with an early irrigated crop are currently reaping and baling while others have made rough bales.
Farmers say they expect the price of tobacco to go above US$5 per kilogramme judging by the quality of their crop. Mr Obadiah Tumbare of Beatrice said he expects a rewarding season.
“It is unfair for the prices to remain at US$4,99 at the auction floors. This will force us to sell our crop at the contract floors to get higher prices.
“We hope the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board will this season address the issue of pricing since it has addressed other problems that were affecting us over the years.”
Mr Innocent Mushavi of Greenwoods Farm said constant power cuts are a major challenge in tobacco processing.
“We we have resorted to using generators. Sometimes we go without power for more than 12 hours and this affects the curing process and the quality of the crop. We use 250 litres of diesel to cure a tobacco crop for 12 hours and this is not viable,” he said.
Auction floors have also started preparing for the inspection of the floors by the TIMB before the opening of the selling season. Tobacco Sales Floor finance executive Mr Patrick Chagonda said everything is in order.
“We are cleaning floors and soon we will be fumigating according to the tobacco regulations,” he said.
Some farmers in Matabeleland have appealed to the TIMB to decentralise auction floors to reduce costs they incur when bringing their crop to Harare for sale.
TIMB chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said decentralising tobacco auction floors requires a lot of resources.
“There are no plans to open new auction floors yet as the process is a complex one. We can only urge the contractors to buy from all the provinces,” he said.
He said the supply of the golden leaf is still low in Matabeleland owing to the small number of growers in that region. “Another challenge is that there is not enough tobacco in Matabeleland. Opening up auction floors would be costly,” said Dr Matibiri.
Latest statistics from the TIMB show that the number of growers who had registered to grow the crop by January 10 is 85 076. About 65 256 growers had registered to grow tobacco during the same period last season.
Online Reporter