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Elita Chikwati Agriculture reporter
Zimpapers group chief executive Mr Justin Mutasa has been selected among the four finalists in the 2013 Tobacco Sales Floor tobacco grower of the year award.This is the second time that Mr Mutasa has won the tobacco grower of the year competition, since being selected as a finalist means that he would be recognised as one of the winners. Mr Mutasa planted 12 hectares of tobacco and harvested 37 389 kilogrammes which were sold last season at an average price of US$3,43 per kg.

He said he was happy to be selected among the best farmers, but expressed concern over the price ceiling at the auction floors. For the past three years, the highest price offered at the auction floors remained at US$4,99, while prices at the contract floors were above US$5 per kg.

Mr Mutasa said the price discrepancies were a way of forcing farmers to grow tobacco under contract farming. “This is forcing people to be enslaved by contractors,” he said.

“The prices being offered should be fair according to the quality of the crop. Farmers who grow the crop on their own without handouts from contractors are also capable of producing high quality tobacco and so should get higher prices.”

Mr Mutasa said he expected the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board to closely look into the pricing structure as it discouraged many farmers who sell at the auction floors.

Over the past three years, Mr Mutasa has won a ridger and a motor bike after excelling in tobacco farming. The land reform programme has seen many indigenous farmers producing tobacco, once regarded as an elite crop grown mainly by white former commercial farmers.