‘Security forces cause confusion at auction floor’
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 23 June 2011 19:41
Bernard Mpofu
A PARLIAMENTARY portfolio committee on agriculture, lands, water and
resettlement has blamed Zimbabwe’s security forces for exacerbating
confusion and congestion at the country’s largest tobacco auction floor.
This comes amid a push by legislators for more auction floors, a decision
facing resistance from industry players.
A report on the operations of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board
(TIMB) and constraints faced by tobacco growers has revealed numerous
challenges at Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF), the largest auction floor by
volumes, making a lasting solution to perennial problems affecting the
cash-spinning business appear distant.
“There were abnormally longer and haphazard queues at the Tobacco Sales
Floors, a situation made worse by several lorries and trucks bearing police
and military plates which were bypassing the queues,” reads the first report
of the committee.
The committee, however, proposed that decentralising the auction floors to
Zimbabwe’s 15 major tobacco growing districts and educating tobacco growers
on the booking system, among other interventions, could minimise the
problems.
However, some industry players contend that taking the floors to the farmers
could reduce tobacco prices, which could result in tobacco price wars.
The TIMB, after completing a feasibility study on decentralisation last
November, this marketing season shelved its plans to embark on the project.
It instead opted for the decentralisation of booking offices to Mvurwi,
Chinhoyi, Marondera and Rusape. Last month’s minutes of the TIMB Board
production and marketing committee meeting with auction floors and buyers
reveal that tobacco merchants are not ready for more auction floors.
The buyers want tobacco deliveries to hit the 200 million kilogramme mark
before new players can come on board. Zimbabwe currently has three auction
floors — TSF, Boka Tobacco Auction Floors and Millennium Tobacco Auction
Floors — with tobacco deliveries this year expected to hit 177 million kgs.
Reports also show that to date the TIMB has received at least 10
applications from would-be auction floor operators.
Apart from competition for the few experienced buyers, the merchants warned
that increasing the number of auction floors — which would subsequently
reduce the tobacco selling and marketing period — would also put jobs on the
line for several casual workers in the sector.