Burley tobacco sales start on good note

Source from:  The Herald  06/22/2007

BURLEY tobacco sales started on a good note yesterday with at least 300 bales being sold for about US$1,30 per kg. Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board acting chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri expected deliveries to be high as trucks ferrying tobacco to the auction floors were provided with diesel. "Once a truck comes in with tobacco it is allocated some fuel," he said The selling season started after the TIMB and Air Cured Tobacco Association reached agreement on a marketing plan for the 2007 season. ACTA brings together the producers of burley, oriental, dark air-cured and fire-cured tobaccos. Its primary objectives are to foster and protect the interests of all sections and classes of producers as well as to promote and develop the air-cured tobacco industry in Zimbabwe. ACTA would, as previous years, buy the entire crop for resale to local merchants and manufacturers. Burley sales would be conducted every day until Friday. Thereafter sales would be conducted every Tuesday and Friday until deliveries stop. Between 350 tonnes and 400 tonnes of the crop was expected to go under the hammer this season. TIMB was presently encouraging more farmers to grow burley tobacco, as it had declined considerably over the years due to poor prices and increased production in neighbouring countries. While burley production had been on the decline in Zimbabwe, countries such as Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia had recorded a jump in production over the last five years resulting in an influx of merchants to those countries. At its peak Zimbabwe produced 18 million kg of burley per year.