Elita Chikwati Agriculture Reporter
Flue-cured tobacco deliveries to the auction floors have declined as most farmers have already sold their crop, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive, Dr Andrew Matibiri has said.

During the peak of the selling season, tobacco growers delivered around 8 000 and 10 000 bales per day, but now, auction floors are receiving a collective of around 3 000 bales per day.

“Deliveries to the auction floors have declined significantly as most farmers have already sold their crop. Most contract farmers are still selling their crop with large numbers coming from Mashonaland East and Manicaland,” he said.

Dr Matibiri said sales were going on well with 165 million kilogrammes worth $489 million having been sold since the opening of the selling season in March.

This is a decline of 9 percent from the 183 million kg worth $583 million that were sold during the same period last year. The bulk of the crop this season was sold through the contract floors.

Since the beginning of the season, 122 million kg of tobacco worth $381 million were sold through the contract floors while 43,3million kg worth $107 million were sold at the auction floors.

The highest price of $6,25 was recorded at Tiane Ze Tobacco while at all auction floors the highest price remained at $4,99 per kg at the auction floors.

Northern Tobacco recorded a highest price of $6,20 per kg, Tribac $6, MTC $5,90 and Shasha $5,80 per kg.

The tobacco industry is expecting between 165 and 185 million kilogrammes of the crop this year.

There are prospects that the deliveries will surpass the targeted volume.

Zimbabwe is slowly moving towards regaining its status as one of the major tobacco growers in the world.