Zimbabwe: Government to Monitor Tobacco Sales

Source from:  The Herald 04/16/2010

Harare - GOVERNMENT will soon establish mechanisms to supervise and monitor the sale of tobacco at the auction floors, President Mugabe has said. Responding to questions raised by farmers at the Zimbabwe Tobacco Auction Company and Tobacco Sales Floors in Harare yesterday, President Mugabe said Government was concerned with the prices offered to farmers and the time they spent trying to sell the "golden leaf". "We have talked to the managers at the floors and realised that there is need for more auction floors as the number of tobacco farmers continues to grow. "The farmers have also complained about the prices and we have heard that the prices are as low as 50 US cents, but when you look at the work done during the year you wonder why farmers are selling their tobacco at such low prices. "It's wrong. Hatidi kuti mubirwe imi varimi. Munoda mitengo yakanaka uye ndizvo zvatinoda seHurumende. "We need a system of supervision and inspection so that Government monitors the progress. We want fair prices for the farmers for the hard work they would have done during the season." Farmers, the President said, should be wary of contractors who get everything and leave nothing for the growers. "There are organisations that come on the pretext of assisting farmers, give them inputs asi dzimwe nguva varimi vanenge vachizvitengesa." Farmers told President Mugabe that they were spending up to three weeks at the floors and were forced to sell their tobacco at very low prices. The farmers said the "chaotic" systems at the floors had exposed them to unscrupulous buyers who were making more money than the tobacco growers. Mrs Mercy Mahachi of Zvimba said while the floor prices were fair when the selling season opened, they had since plummeted. "The pricing system is not fair. At most, some prices are as high as US$4,20 but all of a sudden our crop is under-priced and we have no one to complain to," she said. She said desperate farmers ended up accepting low prices after spending long periods at the floors. Mrs Mahachi said the auction floors had become a health hazard because there were no facilities to cater for the thousands of farmers selling their tobacco there. "Women encounter the most problems as they cannot relieve themselves and bath in the open like men. There are now makeshift bathrooms, but it is still a health hazard as we are overcrowded. "There are also no health facilities at present to cater for the sick." She urged the Government to decentralise auctioning to other provinces. ZITAC board member Mr Wilson Nyabonda acknowledged the challenges at the auction floors. "We are expecting more farmers to bring their tobacco and there is need to come up with ways to make sure farmers are served timeously," he said. The farmers, however, hailed the Government's Look East Policy that has seen more tobacco buyers, especially from China, coming into Zimbabwe. Enditem