Zimbabwe: Tobacco Selling Season Set to Open in March

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) February 14, 2007 02/16/2007

THE 2007 flue-cured tobacco selling season opens next month with between 75 and 80 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf expected to go under the hammer. The Tobacco Industry Marketing Board yesterday said auction sales would commence on Wednesday, March 14, followed by contract sales the following day. Bookings for delivery, said TIMB, would start a week earlier on March 5. TIMB deputy general manager Mr Godfrey Buka said growers were generally happy with the expected quality of the irrigated tobacco produced this year although a larger proportion of the late crop still required top dressing fertilizer. "As a board we are happy with the quality as it is the quality more than anything else that influences international buyers to flood the auction floors," said Mr Buka. The early opening of the auction floors comes at a time the Reserve of Bank of Zimbabwe, in order to buttress the introduction of the 15 percent foreign currency retention facility, has negotiated zero balance foreign currency accounts for growers with banks to enable farmers to easily open such accounts. The almost 80 million kg expected to be sold on the floors will come from a total planted hectarage of nearly 55 000, representing 99 percent of the target, 40 percent of which was funded by contractors. Last year, only 55 million kg of the flue-cured crop was produced. Zimbabwe is renowned for its top quality leaf tobacco to the extent that even if production falls, buyers are still attracted by the quality and not necessarily volumes, although mass remains a factor. TIMB chief executive Mr Stanley Mutepfa, in a circular to stakeholders, said under the retention facility, farmers would be allowed to withhold 15 percent of their proceeds in foreign currency from the sale of the golden leaf, to be deposited if their FCAs. Stop orders would be deducted on the remaining 85 percent. The forex retained cannot be transferred from one individual to another while growers who fail to pay their loans in full would have their FCAs liquidated. Enditem