Tobacco Deliveries Expected to Improve

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) 05/09/2004

TOBACCO marketing floors said on Tuesday deliveries of the crop are expected to improve as more farmers finish grading their crop. Tobacco Sales Floor managing director Mr David Machingaidze said that deliveries to the floor fluctuated between 3 000 and 3 600 bales per day and were expected to further improve as more farmers got ready to market their crop. "We expect the deliveries to steadily improve since a lot of farmers have finished grading their crop," said Mr Machingaidze. [img border=0 hspace="4" vspace="4" align="left" src=http://www.tobaccochina.com/english/picture/1234.jpg] He said prices had also continued to firm, closing at a cumulative average price of US$1,92 per kilogramme against US$ 1,86 per kg during the same period last year. Burley Marketing Zimbabwe managing director Mr Bruce Searles expressed optimism on the deliveries. "We are having a lot of tobacco being delivered and it looks like the new exchange rate is encouraging more farmers to bring more of their crops," he said. He said the farmers were also satisfied with the prices on offer, which have been corresponding well with the quality on offer. "Even though the farmers will always want more money, this time there are not many complaints and they are fairly satisfied with the prices." Mr Searles said. Meanwhile, a total of 6,1 million kg of tobacco valued at US$ 11,7 million have been sold at the auction floors and through contract sales since the marketing season began a month ago. The seasonal mass is a 14,19 percent increase to the 5,4 million valued at US$10 million that was sold during the same period last year. This year's cumulative, average price, at US$1,89 cents per kg, is 2,61 percent more than what was offered during the same period last year. Zimbabwe is expecting to sell a projected crop of 60 million kg, down from a peak of 237 million kg in 2000. The crop is the country's largest foreign currency earner, contributing about 15 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Enditem