Zimbabwe: Tobacco Selling Season Closes

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) 10 September 2007 09/11/2007

The curtain officially came down on the 2007 flue-cured (virginia) tobacco selling season when sales were concluded as scheduled at 1pm on Friday with about 70 million kilogrammes having been sold. Late sales and mop-up transactions are expected to bring the season's total to about 80 million kg. Friday's figures were also not included in the total figure released so far. As of Wednesday, 68, 8 million kg had been delivered to the floors since the opening of the season against the target of 77 million kg that had been set for this year. The figure compares favourably with the 53,5 million kilogrammes that were delivered during the corresponding period last year. A total of $4,3 trillion had been paid out in Government support by Wednesday against $14,4 billion for last year. Tobacco Industry Marketing Board acting chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri, in a statement, said the season had officially ended. Dr Matibiri however, said there was some tobacco that was delivered to the floors and remained unsold on Friday and this would be sold today and if necessary tomorrow as well. "We cannot keep this particular tobacco until the mop-up sales, so it will be sold on Monday (today) and if necessary sales will spill into Tuesday," he said. Dr Matibiri said clean ups were expected to start on Tuesday September 25 and, depending on the volume of deliveries, would be conducted daily up to September 28. "Accordingly, all growers are advised to complete their grading and baling operations and to continue to deliver their tobacco up to Monday 24th September 2007. "The existing booking-in system will continue unaltered. All deliveries still need to be booked into the system before sale to ensure that they are subjected to the Stop Order System. "All defective bales will be declared for the defect prior to sales. No appeals may be made on declared defective bales except for foreign matter. Buyers re-sales may be booked in as normal," he said. In addition, he said contract sales could continue between now and dates of the clean-up sales. "In all cases TIMB sales authority and supervision must be sought. The seasonal grade-price matrix will be used when conducting such contract sales," he said. The tobacco selling season, which almost turned out like the previous selling seasons when farmers withheld their crop in protest over prices, turned out much better after the timely intervention by Government when it announced a government support price. The initial support price was of $40 000 for every kilogramme of tobacco that fetched US$150 with price below this figure attracting a support price calculated on a pro-rata basis which was then revised to $55 000 per kg. The support price and firming prices saw deliveries increasing by more than 100 percent in June and July before slowing down last month. The season was, however, threatened by constraints that farmers faced in securing wrapping papers, which was allegedly being diverted to the parallel market by manufacturers. The Government had to intervene by releasing US$167 000 for the wrapping paper. Farmers also voiced concern over the delays in the clearing of electronically transferred money under the Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS). Transport problems were also a major challenge for the farmers as well as coal for curing their tobacco. Events of this season - coupled by improved deliveries - have put tobacco on a firm footing to reclaim its position on the world market. Enditem