Zimbabwe: TIMB Takes over Rusape Tobacco Auction Floor

Source from:  Manica Post  02/26/2013

THE Tobacco Industry Marketing Board will this season be operating a tobacco auction floor in Rusape that will be accessible to all contractors that sponsored tobacco farming under the contract farming system in Manicaland.
 
The auction floor was last year operated by the Mashonaland Tobacco Company.

TIMB will this year assume the reigns in light of allegations by the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association last year that MTC was unscrupulously intercepting tobacco from local tobacco farmers and classifying it as contract tobacco.

TIMB is a regulatory and advisory statutory body, and MTC will have to apply to be allowed to buy tobacco at the two selling points in Rusape and Karoi after being accused of "engaging in blatant activities to secure tobacco which was not intended for their market", while the price matrix being used by the contractors is causing "disorderliness" and encouraging the side marketing of non-contracted tobacco to the contractors.

The contractors were accused of stifling prices at the auction floors and offering higher prices at their private floors in order to lure non-contracted tobacco farmers.
 
The accusation forced TIMB to be on the ground supervising the process and ensuring that contractors do not end up intercepting the gold leaf they did not support.

TIMB chairperson, Mrs Monica Chinamasa, said the TIMB auction floor will tentatively open its doors on March 1.

"TIMB will be supervising the whole process to ensure that all contractors with tobacco that they sponsored in Manicaland will buy from that neutral point unlike a situation when such facility was in the hands of a private contractor as was with MTC last season.

"We are moving in to ensure that the tobacco selling facility becomes accessible to all contractors, but so far only MTC has expressed willingness to buy from Rusape.

"TIMB is inspecting the premises in the hope that it will open its doors to the public tentatively on March 1," said Mrs Chinamasa.
 
Mrs Chimanasa's comments came as a relief to farmers who were in the dark as to whether the facility will open or not and other auction floors who were unhappy about the operations of MTC.

 "If any other contractor is interested to buy from that point, all they need to do is to apply to TIMB. We cannot let MTC run the floor this time around because it will cease to be neutral to other contractors. In the event that more than two players have expressed willingness to buy their golden leaf from the facility, then we will work out on the modalities to avoid congestion. We will come out with a specific buying calendar for each contractor," explained Mrs Chinamasa.

"We are coming to Rusape to make sure that contractors buy the tobacco that they sponsored.  We will be coming hard on any contractors that engage in unscrupulous activities. We want them to get what they sponsored," said Mrs Chinamasa.

The Zimbabwe Tobacco Seed Association president, Mr David Guy Mutasa, said the opening of the auction floors will be an added advantage to farmers in Manicaland.

"By decentralising, TIMB will be actually capacitating the famers because they will not incur more costs and time delivering their crop to Harare. It alleviates a lot of problems for the farmers," said Mr Mutasa.

He appealed to the contractors to be considerate especially in dealing with small-scale farmers, most of whom may be unable to repay their loan owing to poor harvests.

Mr Mutasa said the contractors and farmers should come up with a win-win arrangement.

"About 70 percent of the small-scale tobacco farmers will not be able to meet their repayment obligations because of the rains which came late and at some point destroyed the crop because it became incessant. It is a hard season for the farmers and we are appealing to contractors to give them a chance to make part payments and clear off the outstanding balance next season," said Mr Mutasa.
 
Mrs Chinamasa echoed Mr Mutasa's comments, adding that farmers and contractors must not fight.

"We would like to believe that contractors have been visiting the farmers and review estimates in light of the rains-related challenges that affected the tobacco crop this season. They must agree on the way forward. We do not expect them to fight. We do not expect the contractors to be harsh. There should be a tradition of communication between the parties before the marketing season. There should be a healthy relationship between them because they depend on each other," said Mrs Chinamasa. Enditem