Zimbabwe: Curtain Comes Down on Extended Tobacco Selling Season

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) 30 October 2007 10/31/2007

HE final sale of the extended tobacco selling season will be held tomorrow, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board acting chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri has said. About 1 000 bales have been booked ahead of the final sale. "This will be the last scheduled auction of the year. We urge farmers to bring in their tobacco," he said. Dr Matibiri said the sale would be followed by special sales where farmers would make their own arrangements to dispose of their tobacco crop. These, he said, would continue until December 15 when all tobacco sales cease until the next March. The mop-up sale dates of flue-cured tobacco were extended to December 15 to accommodate farmers constrained by labour, power and fuel shortages during the normal marketing season. It is understood that more than one million kg of flue-cured is still to find its way to the auction floors. The tobacco selling season this year will have lasted almost eight months by the time sales officially end on December 15. Auctions were originally set to start on March 14, but the opening was delayed until April 24 following disputes over prices and exchange rate. A total of 71,9 million kg of tobacco had been delivered as at September 28. At the close of the selling season over a month ago about 70 million kg had gone under the hammer, realising US$163,9 million up from US$54 million last year. A total of $5 trillion was paid out to farmers in Government support against $14,4 billion last year. The TIMB has set a target of 77 million kg of tobacco for the 2007 selling season. Tobacco production, which reached an all-time low of 55 million kg in 2006, has been on the rebound with a target of 120 million kg set for next year. Enditem