The Sunday Mail
Livingstone Marufu
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board has been urged to come up with a reserve price to cushion farmers against low prices obtaining at auction floors.
Tobacco sales floors officially opened last Wednesday on a very low note with the average price falling from US$2,97 last year to US$1,51 on the opening day. The highest price fell from US$5,70 last year to US$4,65 this year while lowest grades were at USc10.
Agronomist Mr Peter Gambara said the TIMB should review its way of doing business to protect farmers by coming up with a reserve price for all tobacco grades.
“The tobacco governing board should come up with a favourable system that can protect the farmers from buyers as under this current auction system farmers continue to suffer due to low prices. As Zimbabwe, we should have reserved price linked to every grade to cushion our farmers against the forces of purchasers.
“If the bidders come up with a favourable price we can go ahead with the transaction but if the price is lower than the amount agreed upon with the TIMB and farmers, the transaction will certainly not go ahead until they review the price,” argued Mr Gambara.
Total sales on the opening day were US$438 170 for 290 192kg against US$1 489 201 for 438 170kg in 2015.
As of last week, Tobacco Sales Floor was offering the highest price, with an average price of US$1,65/kg against US$1,36 at Boka Tobacco Floors and US$1,03 offered at Premier Tobacco Floor.
Mr Gambara said though the prices were still low, he expected an improvement as the selling season continued.
“We are expecting that things will turn around soon as the tobacco heavyweights like Brazil were severely affected by the El Nino effect hence there is a strong possibility of the buyers coming back with better prices,” he said.
