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Edgar Vhera Agriculture Specialist Writer

FARMERS have expressed concern over the increase in the number of rejected bales at the tobacco auction floors with some alleging collusion on the part of merchants.

This comes as the latest Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) statistics have revealed that the rejection of bales at the floors has increased by 60, 78 percent when compared to the same period last year.

The auction floors according to the TIMB have registered 11 percent of rejected bales compared to 2, 69 percent at the contract floors by day 9.

On day 4, the TIMB recorded an 18 percent denial at the auction floors when 270 bales of the laid 1 469 were rejected.

Tobacco Farmers Union Trust vice president Mr Edward Dune said: “Generally this season has been very difficult to cure good quality leaf hence the tendency by some small-scale farmers to mix hands and at times mouldy leaf which accounts for about 97 percent of the rejected tobacco.

“The remaining small percentage emanates from pricing issues while at contract floors even defective tobacco bales are accepted.”

Mr Dune said farmers need to be continually trained on production of quality tobacco and its presentation for sale on the market.

Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association chairman Mr George Seremwe said the high rejection rate was a cause of concern which reflected poor grading and handling of tobacco.

Mr Seremwe also said this scourge may also be a result of an inside job that was meant to fleece farmers off their hard-earned money through deduction of bale re-handling charges.

“We do not rule out the inside job of middlemen (makoronyera) who collude with buyers to reject certain bales for them to be able to re-handle.

“Rehandling charges can be the driving force behind this menace and this needs to be investigated thoroughly,” said Mr Seremwe.

Tobacco Farmers Union Trust president Mr Victor Mariranyika said the issue of rejection of bales was subjective and could be abused.

“At auction floor there seems to be a syndicate that is using false allegations, a scam that is meant to siphon money from vulnerable farmers.

Mr Mariranyika said farmers needed a clear breakdown of categories of rejection to see if the rejection was valid, if proven so, massive education of growers would be inevitable.

He said some aggrieved farmers felt section 11.0 of the Flue Cured Tobacco Sales Procedure was being abused against them at the auction floors.

Section 11.0 says “Farmers will not be permitted to collect their rejected tobacco. Floors will make arrangements for such tobacco to be re-handled within their premises or engage licensed graders to carry out the re-handling.”

Zimbabwe Integrated Commercial Farmers Union (ZICFU) president Mrs Mayiwepi Jiti concurred saying contractors had no much incentive to reject the tobacco as it was theirs while at auctions buyers scrutinise the bales for enhanced quality.

Meanwhile, TIMB revealed that the rejection rate was generally low at contract sales since contractors may buy defective bales, whereas all tobacco found to be defective was rejected at auction sales.

“Tobacco presentation issues (wet or too dry, mixed hands, mouldy tobacco, or they are underweight or overweight or contain non-tobacco related material like stones and wood) account for 97 percent of the rejected tobacco and the balance is for pricing issues.

“To prevent bales from getting rejected, farmers should focus more on grading and presentation from TIMB, contracting companies’ or Agricultural and Rural Development Advisory Services (ARDAS)’ agricultural extension officers who are in all tobacco growing regions,” said TIMB public affairs officer Mrs Chelesani Tsarwe.