TIMB to Assess Burley Production

Source from:  The Herald 01/31/2012

THE Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board will make a determination on the start of the 2012 burley marketing season once an assessment of the size of the crop is complete, TIMB board chairperson Mrs Monica Chinamasa has said. Mrs Chinamasa said that determination of the size of the crop was critical in the planning process. "We want to find out how many farmers are growing the crop and also the size of the crop so that we can plan accordingly," she said. She added that as TIMB they were determined to ensure that burley production continues in the country. "We appreciate that we need to continue growing burley for blending purposes. "We cannot have a situation where we import burley when we have farmers who have the skills to produce the crop locally," she said. Last season burley tobacco farmers went for more than three months without securing buyers for their crop. Sales only commenced in September after the TIMB finally secured buyers. TIMB chief executive officer Dr 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. Burley production has continued on a downward trend from an all-time peak of 16 million kilogrammes in the 1990s to one million kilogrammes in 2004 and 260 812 kg in 2010. Enditem