On average, buyers are offering growers US$1,20 per kg of tobacco compared to about US$3 during the same period last year

Emilia Zindi – Agriculture Editor

The period March to September has become synonymous with happy visitors to Harare.

It is the time farmers descend on the tobacco auction floors to sell their golden leaf. Others call it the green gold.

Over the past couple of years, some 100 000 Zimbabweans have started growing tobacco, capitalising on the growth in that market and making themselves some tidy sums of money.

A study by Joseph Hanlon (Senior Fellow, London School of Economics), Jeanette Manjengwa (Deputy Director, LSE) and Teresa Smart (Visiting Fellow, London University), says breaking up the massive white-held landholdings and giving them to hundreds of thousands of black farmers helped spread wealth in Zimbabwe.

“These are primarily ordinary poor people who have become productive farmers. The change was inevitably disruptive at first but production is increasing rapidly. Agricultural production is now returning to the 1990s levels, and resettled farmers already grow 40 percent of the country’s tobacco and 49 percent of its maize,” the researchers say.

The researchers say many of the smaller farmers are getting profits of around US$9 000 a year while the bigger ones are raking in above US$100 000 annually from their farms.

And these new tobacco earnings also put cash in the pockets of businesspeople in downtown Harare, Mbare and the environs of the auction floors.

Manufactures and retailers of farming implements, car dealers and vendors were the primary beneficiaries of this windfall from farmers known for their penchant for huge spending.

Not to be outdone were those in the seedier side of “business”, such as commercial sex workers who preyed on tobacco farmers. As well as robbers and conmen.

Everyone wanted a share of the spin-offs from the golden leaf.

This year, things are not looking so rosy.

The hive of activity that had become the norm at the tobacco auction floors has become more of a trickle, with evidently miserable faces mixing it up with those openly bemused by the sudden fall in the average price of the leaf.

Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri concedes that business is low compared to previous seasons.

“It is the first time in six years that we have witnessed a situation where merchants will still be in possession of the previous season’s crop in their warehouses. This has seriously affected prices because the merchants still have to sell last season’s crop before buying this season’s produce,” says Dr Matibiri.

On average, buyers are offering growers US$1,20 per kg of tobacco compared to about US$3 during the same period last year.

Last week, farmers could be seen wondering around the floors listlessly, pondering their next move.

“I brought 20 bales weighing 80kg each, but I am going back home with US$70 after my crop was bought for USc60 a kg,” said Mr Patrick Nyamweda of Wilsha Farm in Chivhu.

“The highest price was US$2,10 — and this was only for one bale. There were also lots of deductions which included Tobacco Levy, bank charges, auction floor commission and a host of other charges such as Forestation Levy and WA Depth Levy.”

Mr Nyamweda does not know how he is going to pay his workers, or put another crop in the field for the next marketing season.

“TIMB advised us to grade our tobacco from the fourth leaf on the stem and we did that. But now we do not understand why they are buying our crop at such low prices,” he said.

Another farmer, Mr Aaron Mutengerwa from Karoi, could not hide his suspicions that there is a deliberate plot to push independent growers to contract farming, which is paying more for both the producers and the contractors.

“This is the first time my crop has fetched less than US$4 per kg. These buyers are the same people who lost their farms to us. So surely they have not put their case to rest,” he alleged.

Farmers say Government should intervene to regulate prices, or alternatively become the sole buyer of tobacco.

Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union national chairman Mr Douglas Mhembere says: “We are calling on Government to be the sole buyer of tobacco from the next season. The buyers will in turn buy direct from Government so that they would be engaging Government and not us farmers.

“Government, on the other hand, should come up with better tobacco prices when they become buyers so that we are able to continue producing and improve our lives.

“Merchants are taking us for granted. How do they expect a farmer to go back to the fields after selling his crop for a song?”

Contacted for a comment, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made requested questions in writing, but had not responded by the time of going to print.

Boka Auction Floors director of operations and special projects Mr Moses Bias says the prevailing low prices were reflective of the poor quality of the tobacco being delivered by farmers.

“The two issues this year are that the merchants have not yet disposed last year’s crop and the tobacco being delivered did not get much water, hence the low quality,” he says.

“Buyers made it clear that this season they will only be going for the top leaves, but we have seen farmers bringing the prime leaves which are fetching low prices. We hope this will improve as we go into the middle of the marketing season.”

Mr Bias also attributes the poor quality to substandard curing facilities, pointing out that the best one to use is the tunnel system — one that most farmers cannot afford.

The tunnel system automatically controls temperatures unlike conventional barns which are manual.