Zimbabwe: Farmers Start Grading Tobacco Ahead of Marketing Season

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) April 18, 2006 04/19/2006

TOBACCO farmers have already started grading their crop ahead of the opening of this year's marketing season, scheduled for next week. This comes after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) boosted this year's tobacco marketing by introducing bonus incentives of $40 000 per kg of early delivered tobacco. President of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association Mr Julius Ngorima yesterday said announcement of a bonus price by the RBZ was a welcome move that was received well by farmers. "Most farmers are happy with this bonus price which I think will encourage them to bring their tobacco earlier than last year", he said. Mr Ngorima urged Government to address the issue of fuel to make sure that deliveries were not affected by transport problems. "Tobacco farmers have always had problems with the transportation of their products and I think the Government should address this problem to avoid any delays this season," he added. Recently the central bank announced a new support price of US$1,8 per kg, a move that was welcomed by most of the tobacco growers. Enditem