Zimbabwe: Tobacco Marketing Season Extended

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) September 28, 2006 09/30/2006

THE Government yesterday extended the tobacco marketing season until further notice to allow farmers to deliver outstanding burley to the auction floors. This is the second time within a month that the selling period has been elongated to accommodate late deliveries. In a ministerial statement, Agriculture Minister Cde Joseph Made told the House of Assembly that the State recognised that tobacco was a major foreign currency earner. "The Tobacco Industry Marketing Board stands so directed that the tobacco auction floors remain open until further notice." The minister said farmers had faced problems that included shortage of labour for grading the tobacco and fuel for delivering the crop to the auction floors. There was a lot of tobacco that still had to be delivered and the Government did not want the farmers to carry the burley to the next season, hence the extension. Cde Made urged farmers to take advantage of the extension of the marketing season by delivering their crop to the auction floors. Farmers would also have incurred huge losses through fumigation by carrying over the undelivered tobacco to the next season. Turning to tobacco farmers' bonuses, Cde Made said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was carrying out verification and the farmers would be paid soon. The tobacco selling season was supposed to have officially ended on August 31 but was extended to September 15, with the mop-up sale scheduled for September 26. Cde Made said a total of 389 794 tonnes of maize had so far been delivered to the Grain Marketing Board out of an anticipated delivery of 500 000 tonnes. He was responding to a question by Kambuzuma lawmaker Mr Willias Madzimure (MDC), who wanted to know the amount of maize and soya beans delivered to the GMB. Cde Made said 40 259 tonnes of soya beans had been delivered to the GMB with additional 40 000 tonnes expected to be delivered under contract farming. The minister said the country harvested 1,8 million tonnes of maize of which 500 000 tonnes were expected to be delivered to the GMB with the balance being retained for consumption by farmers. Enditem