Zimbabwe: Tobacco Sales Floors Receive 1700 Bales

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) 9 May 2008 05/12/2008

The Tobacco Sales Floors has so far received more than 1 700 bales of tobacco since beginning of the selling season. A total of 519 bales with a mass of 40 746 kg were sold at the floors yesterday at an average price of US$2,88 a kg. Farmers selling their tobacco on contract have however continued to complain about prices, which are relatively lower than those being offered for auctioned tobacco, a situation that was expected to be resolved through the introduction of a price matrix. Tobacco Industry Marketing Board's acting chief executive, Dr Andrew Matibiri said they had since resolved the issue of price matrix. "The prices offered under the contract system should be at par or above those that are offered to farmers under the auction system and the price matrix will address this," he said. Dr Matibiri said the release of the price matrix had been delayed by the need to get an indication of the prices that apply to all tobacco grades. "We now have all the prices and the price matrix is now in place so there should be no problem," he said. He said the price matrix was there to ensure the protection of the farmers. "We had actually asked contractors to wait for the price matrix before conducting sales," he said. Meanwhile Dr Matibiri said they were actively engaging the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on the issue of cash withdrawal limit which, at $5 billion, was said to be too little. At least 75 million kg are expected to be delivered to the auction floors this season. Enditem