Acting Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister, Dr Ignatius Chombo (left) examines tobacco from the first bale that went on sale at the Tobacco Sales Floor yesterdaywhile TIMB chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri and TIMB chairperson Mrs Monica Chinamasa (centre) look on
Walter Muchinguri and Elita Chikwati
THE 2014 tobacco selling season opened yesterday with the first bale selling at US$4,85 per kilogramme which is slightly higher than the US$4,50 offered last year.
At least 185 million kilogrammes of tobacco are expected to go under the hammer this season up from the 166,6 million kg sold last year.
Farmers expressed satisfaction over the prices which they described as good for the lower leaves.
Zimpapers chief executive, Mr Justin Mutasa who owns the bale said he was satisfied with the price and expected higher prices as the season progresses.
“I am happy with the price since these are just primings. The best crop is yet to come to the floors and I expect the price to firm for the top leaves,” he said.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president, Mr Wonder Chabikwa said the season had started well and said prices should go above US$5 per kilogramme.
“We have started well and hope there will be no problems this season,” he said.
Premier Tobacco Floor managing director, Mr Philemon Mangena described the opening prices as fair while Boka Tobacco Auction Floors operations manager, Mr Moses Bias said auction floors should improve efficiency to sell more bales as there was an increase in the crop this season.
Acting minister for Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Dr Ignatius Chombo who opened the marketing season at the Tobacco Sales Floor said Government hailed the tobacco industry for the orderly funding and marketing of the crop. He said the same arrangement could be used for other agricultural commodities to increase funding.
“Government is working on the necessary legal and operational framework in which such a system can be sustainable and less prone to abuse and exploitation.
“The ministry is already collecting views and information to be used in drafting a legal framework to guide contract farming and to entice both farmers and markets to switch to such arrangements,” he said.
Dr Chombo said Government was committed to fund agriculture according to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme compact.
Under CAADP, Government will fund, create a conducive atmosphere for viable agricultural production and facilitate investment by stakeholders in the sector. CAADP requires that member states have an investment plan and allocate 10 percent of the national budget to agricultural development to attain a sustainable annual agricultural growth rate of more than six percent per year.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chairperson, Mrs Monica Chinamasa said the tobacco grower base had increased with more than 88 000 farmers registered this season compared to 65 444 in the same period last year. She said 26 816 are new growers.
“Of these, more than 1 000 are new growers from Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland North provinces areas which were previously non traditional tobacco growing areas. The growth in the tobacco sector is attributed to the support provided by contractors,” she said.
Mrs Chinamasa said contractors supported more than 54 percent of the current registered growers and funded 72 percent of the total planted area for the 2013-14 season.
She said the TIMB introduced monitoring and evaluation systems to evaluate the performance of contractors in terms of the cost of inputs and timeliness of disbursement of these to farmers.
“I urge growers and contractors to refrain from side marketing,” she said.
TIMB licensed 20 auction floor buyers this season compared to 15 last year.
The board also licensed 15 contractors with Mashonaland Tobacco Company, the country’s biggest contractor, licensed to buy the crop from Karoi, Mvurwi and Rusape.
Mrs Chinamasa encouraged other contractors to establish out of Harare contract sales to reduce costs on farmers and contribute towards the development of smaller towns and rural centres. She encouraged research and development of appropriate curing facilities.
Agriculture is expected to grow by 9 percent this year largely driven by tobacco.