Every year there are horrendous stories from the tobacco auction floors.
From farmers being fleeced of their hard-earned cash by prostitutes, to deplorable conditions at the selling sites. The worst, perhaps, has been the non-payment by merchants.
As we pass the halfway point of the selling season, we are deeply concerned about the continuing decline in tobacco prices, which are adversely affecting growers across the country.
So far, 186 tons of tobacco have been sold at an average price of $3.48, with prices continuing to fall on both contract and auction floors.
There has been a huge discrepancy between contract and auction prices.
According to Zimbabwean Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board regulations, contract prices must always be equal to or greater than those obtained at auction floors.
However, it appears that this rule has rarely been enforced, leaving growers vulnerable and millions of dollars in rightful earnings being withheld from them.
This lack of fair practice is putting the livelihoods of many hard-working tobacco growers at risk and has already cost growers nearly $23 million this season alone.
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Responsible authorities must address this issue urgently and ensure that the rules are enforced so that growers can receive fair and just prices for their crops.
Only last week, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development, Obert Jiri told a tobacco conference that the sector should be a $60 billion industry, yet we are less than a billion dollars.
He asked a pertinent question: Where is the money going?
He pointed out a lot of other structural deficiencies in the industry that need urgent redress and spoke of a risk-free grower, which is what everyone needs.
The big takeaway from the conference was why can't the bank or the contractor mold a risk-free grower to whom they can lend?
These observations must not be taken lightly and all stakeholders need to join hands in creating a more sustainable and fair tobacco sector that benefits growers, traders, and regulators alike.
There is a need to promote transparency, transformation, and sustainability in the sector.
Of course, there are efforts by those who are investing in the future of the tobacco industry.
But there is an urgent need to answer the question, with the current falling prices of tobacco, is it not going to suffer the same fate as cotton which many farmers are now shunning away from?
In addition, the government has resolved to buy maize exclusively in US dollars, is there a need for farmers to invest in tobacco where they are going to be paid 75% of their earnings in US dollars?
Players in the industry must remember that for them and their organisations to survive, it is the farmers who toil so hard.
There is a need to protect the tobacco farmers otherwise they will focus on other crops.
It has become clear that the government and its agents, mainly the TIMB, have no interest in fostering the ordinary farmer's needs, they have over the years stood on the side of the marketers.
As it stands, no one is willing to help the farmers.
- Gwabanayi is a practising journalist and a farmer in his own right. — 0772 865 703 or gwabanayi@gmail.com
