Tobacco farmers bemoan poor prices
Sunday, 22 May 2011 00:15
BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA AND MOSES CHIBAYA
TOBACCO farmers are disgruntled over the prices being offered at the auction
floors and are urging government to urgently intervene on the issue.
This year, the number of registered tobacco growers surged to 60 000 against
last year’s figure of less than 15 000 farmers owing to the profitable
returns that the crop has been known to offer.
Zimbabwe Progressive Tobacco Farmers Union President Nicholas Kapungu said
prevailing prices at the floors were only serving to deter new farmers from
growing the golden leaf next season.
“We have a whole lot of experienced farmers in our union who have been
farming tobacco for many years, but the prevailing prices are nothing short
of sabotage,” said Kapungu.
He said that prices last week were hovering between US$0,80 and US$1,20
regardless of crop quality.
“As a union, we are not even consulted when the authorities select buyers,”
said Kapungu. “Government is not paying attention to the needs of farmers
and, as a union, we call upon the authorities to address our plight.”
Official statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (Timb)
showed that 87 million kilogrammes of tobacco worth US$231 million had gone
under the hammer at an average price of US$2,65 by day 62 of the selling
season on Wednesday.
Highest prices offered at Tobacco Sales Floor, Boka Tobacco Floors and
Millennium Tobacco Floors stood at US$4,50, US$4,85 and US$4,46
respectively.
Farmers at TSF who spoke to The Standard last week bemoaned poor prices at
the auction floors and urged government to take urgent action.
Mrs Makuvamombe from Macheke said she had brought four bales to the floors
in April and after the tobacco was auctioned, one bale mysteriously
disappeared although indications were that it had been sold at a good
price.
“I think government is supposed to intervene because the marketing system is
not fair,” she said.
She also castigated other farmers for bribing buyers not to pay commensurate
prices for particular bales that deserved higher prices.
Blessmore Nyanga from Shamva said he had withdrawn his bales from the floors
after prices became increasingly unfavourable.
Nyanga said that the costs involved until the final sale were phenomenal and
did not tally with what he had expected in terms of price offered.
“I had eight bales and was charged US$25 per bale. Besides that, I had to
foot the commission and weighing charges before all my bales were auctioned
at less than US$2 per kg,” he said.
Bornface Vambe from Chinhoyi said he was not happy with the prices being
offered.
“As you can see, I can’t pay labour, buy fertilisers and meet other
overheads,” said Vambe.
Boka Floors spokesperson Rudo Boka explained that it was not in the interest
of the floors to short-change farmers but urged authorities to engage and
train farmers on how best to produce top quality crop.
“The competition among buyers is still limited but Chinese companies that
have been buying on behalf of the Chinese market have been offering the best
prices,” she said.
“A number of farmers are not registered and this affects buyers’ planning
capabilities as they would have already sourced money from international
markets that is in accordance with available tobacco.”
At least 90% of auctioned tobacco from Zimbabwe is destined for the export
market.
Millennium Tobacco Floors chairman, Hillary Mombeshora said that some buyers
had not been participating in the auctioning process despite being
registered, a situation which may be contributing to low prices on the
floors.
“A number of countries including Brazil and Malawi have taken to farming
tobacco in large quantities, so that will certainly influence world market
prices,” he said, adding that as the selling season progressed prices had
generally been on a low note.
Auctioneers said good quality crops were getting prices over US$4 per
kilogramme. They said Timb should now focus more on quality instead of
quantity if farmers are to get good returns.