Auction sales of Zimbabwe’s 2017-2018 flue-cured-tobacco crop are set to begin on March 21, according to a story in The Chronicle.
Bookings are due to start on March 7 and crop deliveries will be received from March 15.
The three tobacco auction floors that operated last year have been licensed again: Tobacco Sales Floor, Boka Tobacco Auction Floor, and Premier Tobacco Auction Floor.
Meanwhile, contract sales are scheduled to start on March 22.
Tag: Zimbabwe
Sales season scheduled
Illegal trade ‘rampant’
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a ‘rampant’ illegal trade in cigarettes that is becoming a challenge to local cigarette companies and the economy in general, according to a story in The Herald quoting tobacco-industry sources.
The story said that illicit cigarettes were being sold on the streets for half to a third of the normal retail price, prejudicing sales in conventional shops and the country’s tax revenue.
The MD of the local arm of British American Tobacco, Clara Mlambo, said the tobacco sector was suffering from the effects of foreign currency shortages and low disposable incomes, on top of those created by the illegal trade in cigarettes.
The Herald reported that illicit cigarettes were usually sold at 50 cents a pack while the officially-gazetted average price in conventional retail outlets was $1.50.
“We have seen some products from other companies but not our brands,” said Mlambo. “They are sold so cheap on the streets, which means the consumers will buy those due to pressure on their wallets.”
Mlambo said there was a need for increased enforcement by revenue authorities to curb the challenge of the illegal trade, which was posing a threat to the licit tobacco sector.
Nevertheless, she said that BAT was optimistic about its prospects and encouraged by government initiatives aimed at improving the business environment and attracting investment into the country.Flue-cured crop recovers
The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union (ZCFU) says that recent rain means that flue-cured tobacco deliveries are likely to hit Zimbabwe’s target of 200 million kg this season, according to a story in The Chronicle.
This is something of a turnaround.
Last week, it was reported in The Herald that unhelpful weather had meant that flue-cured tobacco plantings were down by more than five percent this season.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) was reported to have said that the 5.5 percent drop in tobacco hectarage had been caused by poor rainfall distribution. In its latest crop assessment report compiled with Agritex after an assessment undertaken from January 22 to February 2, the TIMB said 104,397 ha were put under tobacco this season compared to 110,518 ha last season.
But in an interview on Monday, ZCFU president Wonder Chabikwa said his organization was optimistic that the targeted 200 million kg would be achieved this selling season, which is due to begin about the middle of next month.
“We are hopeful that we will achieve our projection of 200 million kg of tobacco this selling season because of the rains that the country has received after the dry spell we experienced along the way in the 2017/18 summer cropping season,” Chabikwa was quoted as saying. “Due to the dry spell, we had lost hope that the targeted yields would be achieved.”
Last year, tobacco growers produced 189 million kg of flue-cured.
Chabikwa said irrigated tobacco was now being reaped while the rain-fed crop was at various stages of growth, with some plants developing new leaves as a result of the prevailing wet spell.Zimbabwe moving on
Zimbabwe’s central bank has said it plans to sell bonds to allow citizens living outside the country to invest in the country’s tobacco and gold, according to a story by Godfrey Marawanyika and Renee Bonorchis for Bloomberg News.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said it would provide more information on the diaspora bonds ‘in due course’.
At the same time, banking rules are being introduced with the intention of encouraging money flows and exports.
Under the rules, lenders must give exporters access to all of the foreign currency they received from selling goods, within 14 days of the funds being deposited.
And small, non-corporate exporters shipping more than $2,000 of goods no longer need fill in certain forms.
The new policies and plans come three months after the former president was replaced by the former deputy president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is said to be on a drive to revive the economy and attract investment.
The new administration will allow white farmers to apply for 99-year leases on land, up from five years previously.
And it has pledged to compensate them for improvements they made to land that was seized.
The Bloomberg story is at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-19/zimbabwe-plans-gold-tobacco-diaspora-bonds-as-bank-rules-change.Zimbabwe plantings down
Zimbabwe has less land under flue-cured tobacco this season than it had during the 2016-17 season, according to a story in The Herald.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) says that the 5.5 percent drop in tobacco hectarage was been caused by poor rainfall distribution.
In its latest crop assessment report compiled with Agritex after an assessment undertaken from January 22 to February 2, the TIMB said 104,397 ha were put under tobacco this season compared to 110,518 ha last season.
The late onset of rains followed by a prolonged dry spell meant that the dryland crop was more affected than was the irrigated crop, which is now being harvested, cured and graded.
‘Most of the cured leaf is lemon to orange in color and of fair to good quality,’ said the TIMB. ‘Some of the farmers have already started grading. The average yield from this planting is expected to be around 2,300 kg per ha.’
The bulk of the dryland crop, which was planted from about the middle of October to the end of November, is now fully-grown. But because of the unhelpful weather, some farmers had to replant, which resulted in an uneven crop in some areas. The expected average yield is around 1,700 kg per ha.Zimbabwe disease alert
Concerns have been raised in Zimbabwe about the resurgence of Potato Virus Y in tobacco, according to a story in The Herald.
PVY, a viral disease that is said to have been under control for some years, has apparently resurfaced, and tobacco growers are being blamed.
The government has urged tobacco growers to follow regulations on destroying stalks and crop residues to avoid the spread of pests and diseases.
The Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, retired Air Chief Marshal Perrance Shiri, made this call during a familiarization tour of the Kutsaga Research Station on Tuesday.
Shiri said some growers had been witnessed failing to destroy stalks and crop residues in a timely manner and others had been witnessed not destroying stalks completely. “Now, we end up with these challenges,” he said.
“We need to change the way we do things. We need to be responsible. We had grown a viable industry, which contributes immensely towards the economy of this country and in particular earning foreign currency. We seem to be gradually destroying the industry through the failure to comply with legislation of destroying stalks.
“I call upon farmers to be responsible. It is our responsibility, all of us, to look after the industry that has sustained us. It is there to sustain the economy of the country,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s Plant Pests and Diseases Act requires that tobacco farmers destroy tobacco stalks on or before May 15.
Tobacco Research Board general manager Dr. Dahlia Garwe also expressed concern over the disease, which she said had the potential significantly to affect tobacco production in Zimbabwe.
“We are extremely concerned about the incidence of the PVY,” Garwe said. “Our farmers have for a number of years ignored the legislation that was put in place to keep PVY on check. “Now we are starting to reap the ‘benefits’ of our sins. The fact that we have failed to observe the legislation has meant that we are now seeing an outbreak of a disease that has been under control.”
Garwe was quoted as saying that tobacco farmers were now growing crops of potato, tomato and pepper on the same land on which they grew tobacco. “The crops have the same pests and diseases, so if a tomato crop has been affected by PVY, that disease will also move into tobacco,” she added.Tree levy opposed
Zimbabwe’s Federation of Farmers Union chairman Charles Chabikwa has said that tobacco farmers are threatening to boycott a reforestation levy ahead of the opening of the 2018 marketing season, according to a Newsday Zimbabwe story relayed by the TMA.
From January 2015, the government introduced a levy on all tobacco sales at a rate of 1.5 percent in the first year and 0.75 percent in subsequent years as part of a sustainability initiative aimed at funding the planting of trees to replace those burned as fuel in curing tobacco.
“The levy has been in effect for three years, with close to US$20 million collected from farmers and not a single tree seedling has been planted or sustainable tobacco curing projects embarked on,” said Zimbabwe Tobacco Association chief executive, Rodney Ambrose.
“It is our view that the levy should be removed effective this 2018 season and the funds accumulated to date first accounted for and utilised by farmer stakeholders.”
The Tobacco Industry Marketing board said of the US$19 million collected since 2015, US$4 million was in the board’s account.Warning: middlemen
Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has warned farmers to sell their tobacco only through normal channels and in accordance with official trading practices, according to a story in The Herald.
Otherwise, the TIMB warns, farmers risk being cheated by unscrupulous middlemen, some of whom buy crops for low prices at the farm gate and later sell it at higher prices on the auction floors.
In most cases, the Herald reported, farmers sold their crops at low prices to avoid travelling to Harare, but in some instances middlemen misrepresented information to farmers to force them to sell their crop outside the official system.
Addressing farmers in Headlands, TIMB technical services manager Blessing Dhokotera said farmers should sell their crop through normal channels if they wanted fully to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
“Tobacco growers are entitled to a foreign currency incentive facility, which was recently increased from five to 12.5 percent,” Dhokotera said. “If you sell your crop through middlemen, they will get the incentive when you are the one who would have worked hard producing the crop.”
The Herald story said that some tobacco growers were in the habit of not registering with the TIMB in order to sell their crop without paying registration fees. Such farmers sold their crop using registered farmers’ numbers.
But Dhokotera said that in so doing, the farmers did not receive their incentive, since it was given to the registered grower.
At the same time, he attempted to discourage farmers from believing that they could influence prices on the floors by paying money to third parties, because, he added, it was good quality tobacco that would attract better prices.Sustainable plans
Zimbabwe’s tobacco industry is intensifying its reforestation program by developing woodlots of fast growing trees, according to a story in The Herald quoting the public relations manager of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), Isheunesu Moyo.
The revitalized interest in reforestation has come about because, under the Sustainable Tobacco Program, from 2020, global cigarette companies will not buy leaf tobacco produced in an unsustainable manner, which includes tobacco cured using coal.
Zimbabwean tobacco growers, particularly small-scale producers, traditionally use wood to cure tobacco. But as a result of wood poaching and massive deforestation in most farming communities, there had been a campaign to encourage farmers to use coal as an alternative source of energy.
“Confronted with this situation, it is imperative for the tobacco industry in Zimbabwe to adopt aggressive afforestation programs in order to remain competitive and relevant to the global cigarette industry,” said Moyo.
“TIMB has mobilized $2 million from its own resources for planting of trees for curing tobacco. From this resource envelope, the industry is targeting about 2,000 ha.”
The Herald reported that Zimbabwe had introduced an afforestation levy to fund the planting of woodlots, a levy that had raised more than $3 million since 2015.
However, the TIMB said it had not used these funds because it had not obtained approval to do so from the government.
“We haven’t started utilizing the afforestation fund as we await administrative processes so that we can scale up our activities and plant at least 20,000 ha of woodlots per year for the next five years,” said Moyo.
“This will be enough to cure an average 100,000 ha of tobacco, which we produce per year, and that will enable us to meet the requirements of the global tobacco cigarette companies.”Tobacco season delayed
Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) says that the opening of the 2018 flue-cured tobacco selling season is likely to be delayed because of the late onset of rains, according to a story in The Chronicle.
Most of the crop is still in the fields whereas, usually at this time of the year, most growers would be harvesting and curing their crop ahead of the start of the selling season in mid-February or early March.
Last year, the marketing season opened on March 15.
No date has been set for this year’s opening of sales, some of which could be held outside Harare – in Rusape, Mvurwi and Karoi.
Tobacco is one of Zimbabwe’s major foreign currency earners that last year generated $904 million in exports, down from $933 million in 2016.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has recognized the tobacco selling season as a period when the country’s liquidity situation improves, allowing manufacturers to access foreign currency with which to import critical raw materials.
