Farmers are concerned over the amount of rejected tobacco bales at auction after the TIMB registered up to 18 per cent of rejected bales on given days, reports The Herald.

According to statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) the rejection of bales at the current tobacco auctions has increased by 60.78 per cent compared to the same period last year. On day 4 of the auctions, the TIMB recorded at 18 per cent denial with 270 out of the 1,469 bales being rejected, reports The Herald.
Farmers are concerned over the developments with some claiming that merchants are colluding over the matter. Tobacco Farmers Union Trust vice president Mr Edward Dune said that the reason for the rejections is the quality of leaf and that farmers need to be trained to continually produce top quality tobacco.
“Generally this season has been very difficult to cure good quality leaf hence the tendency by some small-scale farmers to mix hands and at times mouldy leaf which accounts for about 97 percent of the rejected tobacco,” he said, adding, “The remaining small percentage emanates from pricing issues while at contract floors even defective tobacco bales are accepted.”
On the other hand, Mr George Seremwe, chairman of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association, said the high rejection rate was of concern and claimed it could be an inside job aimed at conning farmers out of their hard-earned money.
“We do not rule out the inside job of middlemen (makoronyera) who collude with buyers to reject certain bales for them to be able to re-handle,” said Seremwe.
“Rehandling charges can be the driving force behind this menace and this needs to be investigated thoroughly,” he said.
Tobacco Farmers Union Trust president Mr Victor Mariranyika agreed that the system of rejecting bales was subjective and open to abuse.
“At auction floor there seems to be a syndicate that is using false allegations, a scam that is meant to siphon money from vulnerable farmers,” he said and called for a clear breakdown of categories of rejection to see if the rejection was valid, according to The Herald.