Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Tobacco farmers and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) are still in negotiations to come up with a new system of payment ahead of this year’s marketing season.

This was said by Finance and Economic Development Deputy Minister Clemence Chiduwa during a question and answer session in the National Assembly last week.

He said the payment mechanism used last year remains operational pending the outcome of engagements between the RBZ and tobacco farmers.

Last year, farmers were paid 50 percent of their proceeds in their Foreign Currency Accounts while the remainder was deposited into their local currency accounts at the interbank rate.

“Like I said, the policy has not changed from what was obtaining last year,” said Deputy Minister Chiduwa.

“However, the farmers and the RBZ are engaged in negotiations so the new system that will be used this tobacco marketing season will only be announced at the conclusion of the talks.” Traditionally, the marketing season starts in March but dates for this year’s selling season have not yet been announced.

Last year, farmers encountered challenges in accessing their money, prompting them to request a simplified way of withdrawing their money.

Farmers represented by the Zimbabwe Farmers Union, Tobacco Farmers Union Trust, Tobacco Association of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Tobacco Association and Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union wrote to the RBZ, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board and the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement last month, outlining their  requests.

In their letter, the farmers complained of significant loss of value of tobacco proceeds during the 2019 marketing season, which left many tobacco growers exposed to reduced profitability, inability to retool for the 2020 season and the inability to access the 50 percent US dollar retention and inability to access cash as per RBZ guidelines.