Tobacco deliveries slump

During the opening days of the marketing season, there was an initial rush of farmers to sell their crop as they wanted to get cash to defray expenses incurred during the production stage.
Marketing of the golden leaf started in February and is expected to run until October.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said deliveries had lowered because most farmers have sold their crop and have started preparing for the next agricultural season.
“Farmers are still delivering tobacco but in smaller quantities of less than 2 000 bales down from 35 000 bales during the first days,” he said.
Dr Matibiri said TIMB would soon carry out surveys to determine the quantity of tobacco remaining at farms.
“We will soon be deploying teams to establish volumes of tobacco still to be sold,” he said.
Meanwhile, at least 127 million kilogrammes of tobacco worth US$348 million have been sold since the opening of the marketing season in February.
Government had set a target of 120 million kilogrammes to be sold this year, a figure that has since been surpassed.
At least 110 million kilogrammes of tobacco worth US$322,3 million was sold during the same period last year.
The tobacco is being sold at an average price of US$2,75 per kilogramme, a 6,5 percent drop from last year’s price of US$2,94 per kg.
Adoption of the multiple currencies has seen more farmers turning to grow production. – New Ziana.