448 Farmers Blocked From Selling Their Tobacco
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has blocked at least 448 farmers from selling tobacco at auction floors on allegations of side marketing their crop, reported ZimLive.
Side marketing is when growers sell their produce to third parties in breach of contractual agreements that bind producers to sell their yield to the contractor who would have provided inputs to the grower.
Side marketing also occurs when an individual sells tobacco on behalf of another.
There are varied reasons why side marketing of crops is now rife in the market but it mainly stems from lower producer prices set by the government and the contractors.
The government outlawed side marketing through Statutory Instrument 77 of 2022 in a bid to protect contracting companies from dealers.
In a statement, TIMB said the growers were blocked from selling their produce after noting unusual activity on the tobacco selling system. Reads the statement:
We have blocked 448 grower numbers on strong suspicion of tobacco-side marketing.
We interrogated the tobacco selling system, according to sales points, looking for irregular activity that strongly indicates the illegal practice and these growers are the alleged offenders.
The blocked grower numbers had sold tobacco five times or more in only 13 days of the 2023 tobacco marketing season.
It is illogical and cost-ineffective to bring 20 bales to market on a Monday; then bring 10 on Wednesday and 15 on Friday the same week only to bring similar amounts of tobacco in the following week.
… We have blocked these growers from making more sales to make sure we only have legitimate tobacco farmers selling.
The TIMB advised the individuals with blocked grower numbers to approach their offices with their sale sheets to establish whether they are bona fide tobacco growers selling their own produce or not. It added:
We will also send our technical team for farm visits to verify by physically inspecting the respective farms and if they are legitimate growers, we will unblock their grower numbers.
At least 49.4 million kilogrammes of tobacco valued at US$148.5 million have so far been sold through the auction and contract systems at an average price of US$3 per kg.
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