eBusiness Weekly
BH24 Reporter
HARARE – Tobacco farmers have to date sold 101 million kilogrammes of the golden leaf worth US$184 million, which reflects declining variance between volumes sold since the start of the marketing season in March and deliveries over the same period last year.
The volumes sold thus far this year are 20 percent lower than the 107 million kilogrammes of flue-cured tobacco worth US$361 million that had been sold by farmers during the same period the prior year.
Deliveries to the tobacco floors were low during the first days of the season as some farmers adopted a wait-and-see approach, while those who sold their crop were not happy with the low prices on offer.
During the first days of the current tobacco marketing season, variance between this year’s deliveries and last season’s was around 90 percent.
Latest statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board indicate that deliveries have been increasing as prices continue to firm.
The statistics show that the average price is now at US$1,72 compared to last year’s average price of US$2, 76 per kg at the same stage of the marketing season.
The highest price offered so far since the opening of the tobacco auction floors is US$5,10 compared to last year’s US$6,22 per kg.
Previously a preserve for white commercial farmers, tobacco farming is fast becoming an attractive source of livelihood for many Zimbabwean small-scale and communal farmers
