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Lesego Valela
There have been a few tobacco contract floor deliveries since the auction floors closed about two months ago.
Tobacco farmers have grossed US$630 million from the sale of 205 million kilogrammes of tobacco since the opening of the marketing season in March.
Farmers have earned US$630 million from the sale of 205 million kg of tobacco in the 2022 marketing season compared to 209 million kg worth US$585 they earned over the same period last year.
According to statistics by Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB), the average price for tobacco is at US$3, 06 per kg.
There are 2, 6 million bales laid from the 2, 7 million that were laid last year. A total of 193,371 bales were laid at auction floor and 2,4million bales were laid at contract floor.
A total number of 2, 5 million bales were sold whereas 75 758 bales were rejected.
The lowest price remains the same from last year. It stands at 10 cents. There was an increase in the highest price from last year’s which was at US$6, 70 and this year it is at US$6, 80.
The 2021/22 tobacco season was characterized by late onset of rains, with most areas receiving effective rains around end of November to early December 2021.
The excessive rains in January caused water logging, nutrient leaching, disrupted weeding and other agronomic operations. That adversely affected the quantity and quality of tobacco produced by some farmers this season.
TIMB said the target may not be achieved due to the bad rainfall season.
Zimbabwe National Farmers” Union vice president Mr Edward Dune said there is need for sustainable production of tobacco in Zimbabwe and improvement on payment of growers by the contractors.
“Some Contracting companies faced challenges which adversely affected processing of payments to farmers. Some are not paying on time hence inputs prices are high. This is affecting production of tobacco especially to small scale miners where we are seeing their dropouts because they are failing to meet production costs,” he said.
The 2022 auction tobacco marketing season officially closed on July 20 while the mop up sales continued for every Wednesday until it closed last month. The final clean up sales were held on August 17 of this year.
Zimbabwe National Farmers Union vice president Mr Edward Dune said there were many challenges faced last season which he hopes will not happen this coming season.
“We faced challenges which include late tillage, high costs of machinery, fuel and electricity.
There were prolonged spells which forced the farmers to turn to irrigation,” he said.
Mrs Dephinah Nkomo said she expects a lot of rain next season and also for the Government to intervene in the prices of inputs so farmers can afford.
She went on to say that it will be great if the farmers could get tractors which will assist in farming.
Online Reporter