Zimbabwe: Pre-Booking System Restores Order At Floors

Source from:  The Herald 04/28/2010

THE reintroduced tobacco pre-booking system has reduced pressure at the auction floors and is restoring order. Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board acting chief executive Mr Meanwell Gudu yesterday said the system had improved operations at the floors. "Now farmers will have to book in advance by telephone or in person and will be told when they should deliver their crop. "The system is that a farmer delivers today and sells tomorrow to avoid a situation where farmers spend days at the floors waiting to sell their tobacco," Mr Gudu said. Farmers have been bringing in their crop to the floors without making prior arrangements and this has resulted in some of them having to spend days camped there. Others have lost a lot of money after their tobacco was drenched by rain after spending days in the open. However, a few tobacco growers were yesterday still bringing their crop without booking saying they did not know about the system. Mr Gudu reminded tobacco growers that first preference would be given to growers who booked earlier. Magunje farmer Mr Reason Mushinje said the situation had improved. However, another farmer Mr Timothy Sajeni said he brought his crop last Thursday, booked it on Saturday but was yet to sell. "I have no money and have to wait until I get the money from the tobacco proceeds. "Right now I am surviving on credit," he said. Traditionally, tobacco growers have always booked their crop for sale in advance. However, thousands more people are now farming tobacco and the system had been largely ignored, while some genuinely did not know about the arrangements. Meanwhile, farmers continued to complain about the prices on offer, which they said, were not as good as last year's. TIMB defended the pricing system, saying it was in line with international standards, especially those in the world's largest tobacco producer, Brazil. Enditem