admin
Agriculture Reporter
Auction floors have started preparing for inspections by the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board ahead of the start of the selling season, a senior Tobacco Sales Floor official has said.The tobacco auction floors open on February 19.
Mr James Mutambanesango, managing director of TSF, said they had booked a few farmers so far but they expected the numbers to go up by the end of the first quarter of 2014.
“At the moment very few farmers have started sending in their tobacco bales since most of them are still in the process of curing. The figures will rise later in April as farmers will be in need of money for next season’s preparations and school fees for children.
“This year we expect farmers to deliver bales much earlier than April because of the liquidity crunch faced by the country at the moment,” he said.
Mr Mutambanesango urged farmers to comply with TIMB legislation in terms of registering, bringing estimates and bookings.
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union vice president Mr Berean Mukwende said they expected tobacco revenues to rise as the number of registered growers had increased from last year.
The latest statistics from TIMB show that the number of growers who had registered to grow the crop by January 10 was 85 076. About 65 256 growers had registered to grow tobacco by the same date last season.
Online Reporter
dyton mupawaenda