Zimbabwe: Liberalise Tobacco Industry - Farmers

Source from:  The Herald 04/02/2009

Harare - TOBACCO growers have called on the Government to consider the liberalisation of the tobacco industry for viability purposes. The farmers are calling for the liberalisation of the market, a move that will see them selling their crop to buyers with ready cash than to wait to sell at the auction floors. This comes after the recent clampdown on middlemen and farmers who are engaging in illegal trade. The police are investigating farmers who are selling their tobacco to middlemen. Some farmers interviewed said that it made more sense for farmers to sell their tobacco to buyers who come to them than for them to bear the cost of transporting the crop to the auction floors. "Imagine a farmer in Mt Darwin with just one or two bales of tobacco, if he is to sell his bales to a middle man at US$1 per kilogramme he makes more than when he transports the same tobacco to the auction floors and gets US$2. "Transport costs have been a major headache for most farmers and any opportunity to circumvent these will be greatly appreciated by farmers," said one of the farmers. Tobacco Industry Marketing Board, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr Andrew Matibiri said the situation was more prevalent in Centenary and investigations by the police were continuing. "We are talking to tobacco growers through local leadership and TIMB has always been carrying awareness campaigns educating the farmers," said Dr Matibiri. The farmers said they were in need of ready cash to purchase food and pay school fees. Dr Matibiri said the board was working towards addressing the issue. "We are encouraging contractors to go into the farming areas and assist the farmers and urging some companies to purchase the crop from growers who are not on the contract system," Dr Matibiri added. However farmers felt the tobacco industry needed to be liberalised just like what the Government had done to controlled crops such as maize and wheat. The Government this year liberalised marketing of controlled crops and farmers are free to sell to whomever they wish and the Grain Marketing Board is the buyer of last resort. Tobacco farmers said the same should be done to tobacco since the buyers will not be able to export the tobacco but sell it through the auction system. Other farmers said they could not wait for the auction floors to open end of April since they needed the cash urgently. TIMB is however set to engage all stakeholders in the tobacco industry to ensure the smooth and efficient payment of farmers during the 2009 selling season. Enditem