Zimbabwe: Burley Marketing Begins

Source from:  Financial Gazette 09/27/2011

BURLEY tobacco marketing commenced last week after the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) finally secured buyers for the crop that had failed to make it onto to the market during the tobacco marketing season. Sales that took place on September 15, 2011 amounted to 124 427 kgs worth US$142 555 at an average price of US$1, 15 per kg at Boka Tobacco Floors. Another auction is expected to take place today. Burley tobacco farmers had gone for more than three months without securing buyers for the air-cured crop whose production has continued on a downward trend from an all-time peak of 16 million kgs in the 1990s to one million kgs in 2004 and 600 000 kgs last year. TIMB chief executive officer, Andrew Matibiri, said the main reason why the crop could not find buyers during the normal auction period was because Zimbabwe's burley tobacco is expensive. "The basic reason why burley tobacco buyers are difficult to find is that our burley tobacco is expensive compared to that from other countries in the region such as Uganda and Malawi. In addition, our production level is low. For instance, Malawi is looking at marketing 230 million kg this year as opposed to our estimated production of 450 000 kgs," Matibiri said. The crop is grown in Chipinge, Honde valley, Nyamaropa and northern areas of Mashonaland Central province. It is also grown in isolated parts of the other tob-acco-growing provinces. It is now grown almost exclusively by the 761 registered small-scale producers. TIMB has also imposed a temporary ban on the growing of the crop this season to allow it to carry out a survey to determine the requirement for next season. Before the land reform programme, the crop was produ-ced by small-scale fa-rmers who had managed to venture into tobacco production. Production this year is likely to be affected by the difficulty in securing buyers for the crop. The tobacco selling season started in February and closed last month without any burley tobacco being sold. Statistics from TIMB show that after 125 days, the auction floors closed with 131 million kg of flue-cured tobacco valued at US$338, 2 million being sold although industry had anticipated 177 million kg valued at US$475 million. The agriculture sector is expected to grow by 19,3 percent this year, with tobacco being one of the major crops in the sector. The difference between burley tobacco and flue-cured tobacco is that burley tobacco's leaves are hung in a shed to colour and dry without the introduction of heat into the shed or barn. Flue cured tobacco leaves are hung in a barn into which heat is introduced in a controlled manner (through flue pipes) to colour and dry out. Enditem