Tobacco deliveries improve

Statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) show that as of Friday last week, the bulk of  the sales were from deliveries made through contract arrangement.
Deliveries made through the auction system amounted to            15 191 300 while 35 133 000 were obtained through the contract system at the four auction floors — Tobacco Sales Floor, Boka Tobacco Floors, Millennium Tobacco Floors and Premier Tobacco Floors.

Timb chief executive officer Dr Andrew Matibiri said: “The quality and presentation of the crop is better than that of last year. With the licensing of four auction sales floors there has been no congestion encountered so far.”
The average price for tobacco delivered through the contract arrangement at the floors was $3,70 per kilogramme while auction sales average price was $3,48 per kilogramme.

The total average price for tobacco deliveries was $3,63 a kilogramme.
Mr Matibiri said bales laid at the auction floors were 170 245 with 159 341 having been sold.
This means that rejected bales at all the auction floors amounted to 8 975 and the reason for rejection, among others, included oversize and underweight, badly handled (too wet or too dry), mouldy, and mixed in the hands.

An agronomist and tobacco expert, Mr Thomas Nherera, who is also the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union past president, said the deliveries made so far were above          those achieved during the same period last year.
During the same period last year, 11 261 100 kilogrammes of tobacco were sold.

“The deliveries and the prices achieved so far are higher than last year during the same period, which is quite encouraging on the market as we project more sales than last season,” he said.
He noted that the main crop (from large scale farmers) was yet to trickle in at the floors as it was still on the land.

On the basis of such facts, Mr Nherera said, the country had an opportunity to achieve the projected sales of 150 million kilogrammes this marketing season.
“The main crop is still on the land and we hope that by the end of April, the deliveries will start flowing at the floors. We expect the sales to be higher than last year,” he said.

Before the economic meltdown, the golden leaf was one of Zimbabwe’s major foreign currency earners.
In the 2011 marketing season, Zimbabwe sold 132 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf, earning the country $360 million.