Zimbabwe: Tobacco Auction Floors Ready for Selling Season

Source from:  The Herald  02/18/2014

PREPARATIONS for this year's tobacco season, which starts on Wednesday, are almost complete at the four floors licensed to handle tobacco sales.Tobacco Sales Floor, Boka Tobacco Auction Floors and Premier Tobacco Auction Floors will handle auction sales while Mashonaland Tobacco Company that has floors in Harare, Rusape, Mvurwi and Karoi will handle the contracted crop.

MTC has contracted 12 500 farmers who are mostly small-scale growers. A visit to all four floors on Friday showed an advanced state of readiness. BTAF chief executive Ms Rudo Boka said that they had invested in canopies for two of their four receiving bays and in plugging leaks on the roof of the floors.

"Whether it is raining or not we are sorted as far as receiving tobacco is concerned," she said. Ms Boka said they had also made provisions for farmers to have tobacco that needs re-handling to be sorted within the floor to avoid that tobacco being taken up by side marketers.

In terms of finance, Boka Tobacco Floors director of operations and special projects Mr Moses Bias said they had made provisions with banks to ensure that they have enough money to process payments quickly.

"We have eight banks that will be operating here and we have asked each back to provide at least five tellers which means that we will have 40 tellers who will be serving 40 farmers every two minutes," he said.

In addition he said they were also planning to process some payments through Ecocash as more tobacco farmers were more happier receiving their money via their mobile phones that through the bank. He however said there were some regulatory issues that still needed to be addressed since Ecocash transactions were limited given the high value payments that farmers receive when they sell their tobacco.

BTAF had by Friday received 200 bales although expectations were that at least 1 200 bales would have been delivered by Wednesday, when the season opens. At Premier Tobacco Floors, managing director Mr Philemon Mangena said their main focus was on ensuring that farmers get their payments as quickly as possible.

"We will have six banks BancABC, NMB, Standard Chartered, MBCA, FBC and Metbank, they have all assured us that they have the capacity to process farmer's payments," he said.

Mr Mangena said they had also acquired a property adjacent to the floor which will be used for parking while additional entertainment will be provided for farmers as they wait to sell their crop. On Friday caterpillars were busy working on the new car park while workmen were putting finishing touches to the floors.

"Our main focus has always been to ensure that our clients, who are the growers, have the best possible service and this season will definitely be better than the last one as you can see the place is very clean," he said.

He added that they had also come up with some prices that they will be offering to the best small-scale on a daily basis while the best grower for last season will be honoured during the course of the season.

At TSF workers were also busy sprucing up the facility. TSF managing director Mr James Mutambanesango said they had just completed routine maintenance of their conveyors and trolleys.

"We are ready and this year we will be using all the floor space for auction sales which means that we can accommodate about 9 000 bales per sale," he said.

Mr Mutambanesango said that they had 500 to 600 bales that had been booked by Friday. He also said that they had been assured sufficient cash to pay farmers by the banks that will be operating at the floors.

Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chairperson Mrs Monica Chinamasa said she was very happy with the state of preparedness of the floor especially the provision made for rehandling of tobacco by all the floors. Enditem