Tobacco experts call for early opening of auction ...

Tobacco experts call for early opening of auction floors

Audrey Galawu

Tobacco experts have urged authorities to open the tobacco auction floors earlier to avoid side marketing by farmers.

Tobacco auction floors open in mid-March, which for most growers is rather late.

Founder at The Farmer Talk Club, Phineas Mukomberanwa, said due to late end up sitting on money that they cannot use to pay fees, wages, and day-to-day operations at the farm.

“I feel they should open sooner. Every farmer right now is in debt, we are just out of Christmas, back to school beckoning, farm labourers and team “remaricho” asking for their dues.

“The financial burden is too heavy. Yet, you have tons and tons of tobacco in storage waiting to be delivered to the floors. Or others would have delivered but waiting for the floors to open. So, what do you do? Do you go to the bank to ask for a loan, what if you don’t get it? You end up selling to those guys with excess liquidity - those guys commonly known as Makoronyera (middlemen).

“If the floors open, there is no side marketing. By the way, other companies have already started buying. As a result, most of them end up selling their crop to middlemen, fuelling side marketing. Many companies have lost a lot of their contracted crop as a result.

“The early bird catches the fattest worm, as it has often been said. Some big companies, realising this old truth, have gone ahead of everyone and started buying the golden leaf even before the regulator has given the go-ahead, a case of innovation going ahead of regulation,” he said.

As of January 19, the country has exported a total of 21 805 510kg of tobacco worth US$146 032 348 compared to 8 721 736 kg worth US$36 090 637 exported in 2023 during the same period.

The Far East is leading the exports with 16 584 615 kg of tobacco worth US$131 645 919 exported.

In Africa, 2 285 216 kg worth US$5 090 165 was exported, with 923 280 kg worth US$1 185 124 to the European Union, while 806 600 kg worth 2 570 696 were exported to Middle East and 789 000kg worth US$3 475 440 was exported to Europe and 415 800 worth US$2 065 005 exported to the Americas.

As of January 11, 110 795 hectares of land were planted, 19 024 ha on irrigated land and 91 771 on dryland.

As of January 18 113,161 tobacco growers have so far registered compared to 147 867 growers who had registered during the same period in the last season.