Thirty days into the marketing season, Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board reminded growers that quality tobacco that is properly grown, cured, conditioned, graded, and baled attracts top prices at the market, and they should handle their tobacco with care at every stage to avoid lamina damage. The board used Pedia Matamisa, a self-financing grower from Murehwa’s Percyvale Farm, as the face of its message.
Matamisa was a beneficiary of the Land Reform Program under A2 and this year received the highest tobacco price on the auction floor when two of her bales fetched $4.99 per kilogram. Her lowest price was $2.33 per kilogram and she averaged $3.28. She said last year she averaged $1.79.
Previously using porous, plastic barns to cure, Matamisa said fellow farmers helped her realize that the use of good barns had a bearing on the quality of the leaf and she decided to improve hers. Unable to get a loan, she sold her car to help get the $5,000 she needed to build a “rocket barn.”
Originally designed in 2008 in Malawi, Kutsaga Research began building the Zimbabwean version of rocket barns in 2011, which not only help provide consistent heat to improve curing quality but also reduce the amount of fuel needed by up to 50%.
Matamisa also urged other farmers to properly grade their leaves according to size and not mix the short and long ones.
“I had two bales that were rejected because of these mixing issues,” she said. “Besides the disadvantage of lowering your prices, this also brings additional re-handling costs.”