Zimbabwe: Tobacco Deliveries on the Increase

Source from:  The Herald 02/22/2012

TOBACCO volumes have started picking up at the auction floors as the selling season enters its second week. Yesterday, farmers could be seen milling at the auction floors waiting to get their cheques and cash. At Millennium Tobacco Floors, deliveries were reported to have started picking up over the weekend. MTF marketing manager Ms Kudzayi Hamadziripi said deliveries at the auction floor had doubled although activity was still low. "Last week we used to receive 200 bales per day but the volumes have doubled," she said. The low turnout of farmers had been attributed to the late crop as some farmers are still processing. Ms Hamadziripi said some farmers were having difficulties delivering their crop to the auction floors as they did not have packaging material. "The farmers cannot afford hessian bags and we have started supplying them and they will pay through a stop order facility." Another challenge, Ms Hamadziripi said, was that some farmers were bringing their crop without having booked. She said these farmers were assisted at the TIMB offices within the auction floors. The farmers said they were happy for being paid early. They said they could go back home early unlike last season when they spent days waiting to sell their crop or to get their money. Premier Tobacco Floors managing director Mr Philemon Mangena said the auction floor received 350 bales yesterday. This is a significant increase from last week's volumes of between 180 and 200 bales. "We are also carrying out outreach programmes in farming areas to educate farmers on the importance of booking and how to go about the procedures," he said. Boka Tobacco Auction Floor, director-special projects, Mr Moses Bias said last week the volumes averaged 800 bales but yesterday BTF received 1 200 bales. Enditem