Zimbabwe: Rusape Tobacco Floor Opens Door to Public

Source from:  Manica Post (zw)  03/25/2013

THE Tobacco Industry Marketing Board has opened a tobacco auction floor in Rusape to pave way for all contractors that sponsored tobacco farming in Manicaland to buy their golden leaf under one roof.

The auction floor opened its doors to the public a fortnight ago, with so far a single contractor - the Mashonaland Tobacco Company being active on the market.

TIMB is a regulatory and advisory statutory body, and all contractors wishing to use its roof will have to apply to be allowed to buy tobacco at the Rusape point.

TIMB chairperson, Mrs Monica Chinamasa, confirmed the latest developments, adding that the regulatory body was playing a supervisory role to prevent buyers from engaging in blatant activities to buy tobacco which was not intended for their market.

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.

TIMB assumed the reigns after allegations that MTC was unscrupulously intercepting tobacco from local tobacco farmers and classifying it as contract tobacco.

The president of the Tobacco Association of Zimbabwe, Mr David Guy Mutasa, hailed the initiative, saying it came as a relief to farmers in Manicaland.
 
Mr Mutasa said the decentralisation of the auction floors to the province would see farmers cutting transport costs by more than half.

"It is a positive development from a farmer's perspective. Transport costs will be minimal.

"The environment is friendly than in Harare. Farmers are able to sell their crop without hassles," said Mr Mutasa.

Mr Mutasa urged farmers to scrutinise their sales sheets because there were unscrupulous insurance companies that were garnishing farmers without entering into any agreement with them.

He said his association had received numerous complaints from farmers to this effect.

"There are some unscrupulous insurance companies that are on the prowl, levying farmers under the false guise that they had insured their tobacco crop.

"Farmers should not just be excited about figures from the sales, but should take an audit of all deductions and see if they were above board. We have received numerous complaints from members of our constituency and we reported these insurance companies to the TIMB and the have since been black listed," said Mr Mutasa. Enditem