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TIMB embarked on the electronic marketing project in order to automate and speed up processes at auction floors thereby decongesting the floors. Sales data will also be relayed in real-time to stakeholders, which is in contrast to the previous setup where data would be uploaded to TIMB systems at the end of the day In the past seven days tobacco farmers have earned $53,6 million, bringing the seasonal total paid out to farmers to $293,6 million.This is from 101,6 million kilogrammes of tobacco that have so far been sold at an average price of $2,89 per kg.

Last season by the 40th day of the season, only 81,6 million kilogrammes of tobacco had been sold with farmers earning US$224 million.

Bale rejection rate continues to decline with only 6,15 percent rejected this season of the 1 397 572 bales laid compared to 9,08 percent of 1 119 590 bales laid by the same time last season.

Rejection is currently largely due to mixed hands, something which is addressed by re-handlers at the floors before the bale can come back for reselling.

Cases of tobacco getting wet during transportation are getting less and less as farmers are insisting on transporters with closed vehicles or use of tents.

Farmers should ensure that their bales weigh between 20 and 130 kilogrammes so that they are not rejected for being undersize and for being overweight as undersize does not make economic sense for the farmer whilst too big bales make it difficult for processing as it will naturally fall outside the accepted bale dimension of 61cm by 61 cm by 81cm.

Farmers are encouraged not to take their tobacco outside the floors to sell to strangers who prey on farmers and offer them prices too good to be true.

Some of these conmen after lying to farmers who are keen to do shady deals, approach TIMB officials or buyers purporting to be negotiating for higher prices when in actual fact they will be enquiring on totally divorced issues.

Farmers should desist from participating in illegal activities as they usually end up victims and if the temptation is too good, they should insist on meeting TIMB staff or floor personnel as well and only then will they realise that it is all a hoax.

If a farmer is not happy or not sure of anything on the floor, they should approach TIMB officials wearing reflectors written TIMB or floor staff wearing reflectors with the name of the floor, who can facilitate a meeting with growers’ representatives resident at the floors.

In a bid to ensure that farmers earn what their tobacco bale is worth, auctioneers can hold bales in what is known as house bales if they feel what is offered by the buyers is less than what a bale is actually worth only to re-offer the bale on the following day.

The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) in an effort to ensure a more transparent auctioning system is finalising its e-marketing system, which will result in the reduction of human interference and errors in the tobacco marketing processes.

The system’s requirements analysis document was signed by TIMB and NIIT Technologies in February 2016 after comprehensive review of the initial design of the system. The final design took into consideration input from industry stakeholders and also strict adherence to the prevailing tobacco marketing statutes.

The construction and unit testing of the application is currently in progress and will be completed by mid-June.

TIMB resolved to install the e-marketing system at a selected sale point before rolling out to the remaining sale points.

Deployment will involve interfacing with existing systems in order to automate current manual processes. The deployment will involve comprehensive user acceptance testing stage after which the project can be signed off as complete.

The system will be used in parallel with the current systems before full deployment.

TIMB embarked on the electronic marketing project in order to automate and speed up processes at auction floors thereby decongesting the floors.

Sales data will also be relayed in real-time to stakeholders, which is in contrast to the previous setup where data would be uploaded to TIMB systems at the end of the day.

Tobacco growers and casual observers will also be able to witness live auction transactions on screens conveniently situated at various places at the sale point.

For additional Information contact: TIMB at429 Glen Eagles Road, Southerton, Harare or write to us on PO Box 10214, Harare or on telephone numbers 0772145166 /9 or 0279-22082 /21982 or 025-3439 or 067-24268 /29246 or 0277-2700 or 064-7280 or 0271-6772 or Toll Free Number 0731999999 or E-mail: [email protected]