Zimbabwe: Zesa Gives Tobacco Farmers Reprieve

Source from:  Allafrica.com 02/17/2011

ZESA Holdings has agreed to let farmers pay half the amounts they owe to get uninterrupted electricity, as auction floors wind up preparations for the start of the marketing season. The agreement also entails farmers forming syndicates to ensure that they honour the agreements and in turn get electricity during the curing period. The deal between Zimbabwe Farmers Union, Tobacco Association of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company comes at a time when farmers have been battling to settle arrears with the power utility. Farmers can also enter into an Auction Stop Order System -- get the money deducted when they sale their crop -- for the balance of payment of their arrears. The power deal is seen as a good precursor to the introduction of prepaid meters as farmers have an opportunity to clear their arrears before starting on a new page. ZETDC managing director Mr Julian Chinembiri wrote to the tobacco farmers advising them of a new payment plan that if adhered to would ensure farmers pay their outstanding bills while at the same time getting power to dry their crop. "Confirming our discussion, you are hereby requested to engage the tobacco farmers in your regions and ask them to visit our offices in their districts to make the payment plan for the electricity bill arrears. "In general a down payment of 50 percent of the outstanding bill is required and the balance payable over three months. Agreement forms will be available at our district offices. "ZETDC will improve the security of power supply to tobacco clusters when the bills are settled as more power can be imported from the region," read the letter. TAZ national treasurer Mr Edward Tome said the deal would ensure tobacco farmers did not lose their crop and neither would they lose the quality of the crop in the barns owing to erratic power supplies. "We are mobilising farmers into entering into the agreement to ensure we have the power. This is our only hope given that the prices of both diesel and coal are beyond our reach. Imagine having to run a generator, which uses 100 litres of diesel a day for three months. That is unsustainable and no farmer can afford that given the ever increasing prices of fuel," he said. The association also appealed to TIMB to ensure that hessian bags were available to avoid shortages that have seen the wrapping paper being sold on the black market. Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF) and the Boka investment said they are ready for the tobacco-marketing season that begins on 15 February 2011. TSF managing director, Mr James Mutambanesango said his company was prepared to handle huge quantities of tobacco per day as long as the proper procedures of tobacco marketing were observed. "We are capable of holding six sales per day with 3 000 bales being sold in each sale. That means we can sell between 18 000 and 20 000 bales depending on how orderly the farmers are going to be," he said. He said the bulk of tobacco farmers who spent days waiting to be served had not registered and thus did not submit estimates of the quantities they were delivering to allow merchants to mobilise adequate buying cash. "About 98 percent of the tobacco auctioned here is bought by international buyers who use offshore funding and therefore need correct estimates of the volumes coming in so that they secure enough capital in time. "If they get incorrect estimates like what happened last season they come ill-prepared and try to spread the little financial resources to cover all farmers resulting in a drop in prices," Mr Mutambanesango said. He said the company would not receive tobacco not conforming to international standards and a strict screening process would be done. Mr Mutambanesango said farmers would be paid through banks to ensure quick transactions. Barclays, Stanbic, ZB and the Metropolitan Bank are some of the banks that will be engaged. Farmers without accounts would receive virtual cards to enable them to access their money at any point of sale anywhere. The other floor, Boka Tobacco Floor (BTF) would open as soon as renovations currently taking place are complete. BTF operations manager Mr John Boka said they were building 30 new toilets, repairing leaking roofs and drainage systems while the conveyor belt has been sent for refurbishment where it will be fitted with digital scales for accurate weighing of bales. Zimbabwe Farmers Union director Mr Paul Zakariya said things would be different this time. "The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board has decentralised services and farmers can register and make bookings without coming to Harare. A farmer will only come here after being given a date. A farmer only goes to the floors on the day his or her tobacco will be sold," he said. Enditem