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Chinhoyi Bureau
TOBACCO auction floors in Karoi opened for trading on Monday, two weeks after the opening of the national selling season, with about 800 bales going under the hammer for prices generally welcomed by farmers.
The best crop sold for US$5,35 per kilogramme, while the least fetched 20 US cents. In general, prices were higher than those paid on the first day of trading at the main auction floors in Harare.

In all, 855 bales sailed through the Karoi auction floors on the first day before deliveries marginally dropped to 634 on Tuesday.
At least 185 contracted farmers brought their crop on the first day while the same number of farmers delivered on Tuesday.

In an interview, Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board Mashonaland West regional manager Mr Lovemore Chikweya said deliveries are expected to improve next week.

“We are happy with the first two days and the deliveries farmers have made. We expect the volume of tobacco to increase from next week as more farmers start bringing their crop after competing their tobacco processing,” he said.

There are more than 15 000 contracted tobacco farmers in Hurungwe district alone, which is one of the major growing areas in the country.

“The prices seem to be higher during the early days of selling but generally decline as the season progresses, which forces farmers to flock to the floors in numbers to beat the midstream decline in prices,” said a farmer, Mr Silas Matende.

Farmers said they were happy with the smooth process at the floors and increased convenience brought about by the decentralisation of tobacco auctioning.

Mr Moses Jezelandi said the prices on offer meant they would make a profit.
Farmers were financed to the tune of US$800 per hectare of tobacco.