ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) has raised weighing and auction floor fees, from US$4.50 last season to US$7.70 per bale this season.
Other deductions farmers have to deal with include a 0.75% tobacco levy, 0.8% TIMB stop-order levies, and a Ministry of Agriculture levy (US$0.875 per kilogram.)
In a March 19 circular, TIMB had set the weighing and auction floor fees at RTGS$12 (US$4.50) per bale, only to increase it to the above US dollar amounts in a March 22 circular.
An industry insider said that this move by TIMB would affect the viability of tobacco farming, adding that pegging fees in US$ was in violation of Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019 which orders that prices should be charged in RTGS dollars.
TIMB spokesperson, Isheunesu Moyo, attributed the increase in auction fees to an upsurge in the cost structure at the auction floors.
Those in the industry fear that at a time tobacco sold via auction floors is estimated at 20%, the increase in charges could further reduce volumes, driving more growers to contract floors where charges remain low.