Zimbabwe sales season off to good start

Zimbabwe’s 2014 flue-cured tobacco selling season opened on Wednesday with the first bale selling for US$4.85 per kg, up from the $4.50 offered at the start of last season, according to a story in The Herald.

The paper said that at least 185 million kg of flue-cured were expected to be sold this season, up from the 166.6 million kg that was sold last year.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union president Wonder Chabikwa said the season had started well and that prices should go above US$5 per kg.

Premier Tobacco Floor managing director, Philemon Mangena, described the opening prices as fair, while Boka Tobacco Auction Floors operations manager, Moses Bias, said the auction floors needed to lift their efficiencies because of the increase in the crop this season.

The acting minister for Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Dr Ignatius Chombo, who opened the marketing season at the Tobacco Sales Floor, said the government commended the tobacco industry for the orderly funding and marketing of the crop.