Agriculture Reporter
The 2014 flue-cured tobacco selling season at the three auction floors will close next week, earlier than the previous seasons, with deliveries expected to surpass 200 million kilogrammes.
Auctioning at the contract floors would continue for some weeks because of the high deliveries still being recorded there.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri said the season had been fast.
“The flue-cured tobacco marketing season will close on Friday June 27 with final deliveries accepted on Thursday 26 June,” he said. “All growers who sell on auction floors are therefore advised to complete their grading and baling operations by Wednesday 25 June at the very latest.
“Most farmers have delivered their crop for sale and we are confident that the tobacco deliveries will surpass 200 million kg.”
The flue-cured auction tobacco clean-up sale would be held on July 15.
Statistics from the TIMB show that 194 million kg of flue-cured tobacco worth US$619 million has been sold since the selling season opened in February.
This is an increase of 32 percent from the 147 million kg of the golden leaf worth US$543 million sold over the same period last year.
Last season, 166 million kg of tobacco were sold, with 48 million kg coming from contract farmers, while independent farmers accounted for the remainder.
Many farmers were forced to sell their crop to contractors this season after it emerged they were offering higher prices compared to the auction floors.
The highest price at the auction floors remained at US$4,99 per kilogramme for the fourth consecutive year.
At the contract farming floors, the highest price was US$6,15 per kg this season, prompting farmers to complain over the price disparities.