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Agriculture Reporter
TOBACCO auction floors yesterday received low volumes of flue-cured Virginia tobacco ahead of the mop-up sales which start today. By 11am yesterday, Boka Tobacco Auction Floors had the highest number after it received over 400 bales. An official with BTF said the company expected more deliveries as the day progressed.
“Usually farmers bring their crop during the evening and we expect the volumes to pick up,” he said.
At the Tobacco Sales Floor, more than 100 bales had been received since the auction floors closed last month.
Premier Tobacco Floors managing director Mr Philemon Mangena said during the same period last year they had received more than 500 bales but this season only 10 had been received by yesterday morning.
“This shows that most farmers had sold their crop at the close of the auction floors. There isn’t much tobacco in the farming areas,” he said.
Some farmers said they had sold the bulk of their crop during the early days while others said they deliberately withheld their crop for the mop-up sales.
Mvuma farmer Mr Thomas Mambo said he was selling his remaining bales to raise money for inputs for the next season.
“At first I sold my tobacco so that I could pay school fees for my children but now I want to buy inputs for the forthcoming season,” he said.
The 2013 flue-cured tobacco auction selling season came to an end at day 99 after 158 million kilogrammes of tobacco had been sold for US$584 million.
Auction floors contributed 53 million kilogrammes worth US$188 million while 105kg of tobacco were sold through the contract floors.
The Tobacco Industry Marketing Board said mop-up sales would continue depending on deliveries to the auction floors. By July 26, 163,5 million kilogrammes of tobacco had been sold. A total of 170 million kg are expected to be sold this season.
Online Reporter