Zimbabwe: 'Keep Tobacco Free From Contamination'

Source from:  The Herald 03/22/2010

Harare - Tobacco growers should be careful when handling their crop to avoid contamination of produce with foreign matter resulting in rejection at the auction floors. During grading and baling, foreign objects such as stones, plastics and rubber may get into bales. Mouldy tobacco should also not be included in bales as this may result in the whole bale being rejected. According to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board, there has been an increase in the number of bales rejected this year. TIMB chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said: "Tobacco bales are usually rejected at the floors for being overweight or underweight, too wet or dry crop and moulding. "This season wastage bales have been on the increase. Tobacco is mostly being rejected due to moulds. In most cases the crop would have been graded while it will be too wet," he said. By day 11 of the tobacco sales, 5 267 of the 53 568 bales that were brought to the auction floors had been rejected. After rejection, farmers have to re-grade their crop. "There are operators who can also sort the bales on behalf of farmers," Dr Matibiri said. TIMB has extended tobacco selling days to five a week due to increasing deliveries. Enditem