Only 52 tonnes of burley tobacco has been delivered to the Burley Marketing Zimbabwe auction floors, as transport difficulties continue to hamper deliveries of the crop, reported the daily paper, The Herald, in late July.

According to figures made available by Burley Marketing Zimbabwe (BMZ) Limited, the country’s sole buyer of burley tobacco, a total of 52,299 kilogrammes had been delivered to the floor since the opening of the season on 22 June, raising fears that the target of 400 tonnes might not be reached.
An official with BMZ said: "Burley deliveries have not been very encouraging although we expected the supplies to increase as the marketing season grows. We suspect deliveries are being stalled by fuel shortages and prohibitive transport costs and will improve when the fuel situation stabilises," she said. She added that at present farmers were concentrating on delivering flue-cured tobacco which fetched more on the market than burley.