THE 2012 tobacco selling season opens on February 15 amid expectations from stakeholders of high output and quality crop.

The tobacco would be auctioned at four floors Tobacco Sales Floor, Boka Tobacco Floors, Millennium Tobacco and Premier Tobacco.

Players in the industry told Standardbusiness they hope for a “bit more in terms of national yield and better quality tobacco”.

Zimbabwe Progressive Tobacco Farmers Union president, Nicholas Kapungu, told Standardbusiness that the organisation is optimistic ahead of the selling season, as all members will sell the crop to one buyer, Star International Tobacco, whom they have agreed with on prices.

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ZAMBIA Sugar Plc last year paid out K210 billion to small-scale outgrowers in Mazabuka District who account for almost 40 per cent of the raw materials the company uses to produce the commodity.

Company managing director John Moult said the K210 billion was in addition to the various forms of direct and indirect taxes the company paid to Government as well as the money it paid to local contractors from the Mazabuka District Business Association.

He said the money the company paid out to farmers was an indication of a 56 per cent turnover from the previous season in terms of supplied cane.

He said the outgrowers were playing a key role in record production and profits for the Illovo Group owned Sugar firm which would keep on promoting their activities.

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The release of a new Safmarine shipping application for all mobile devices using the Android operating system will allow Safmarine customers to access and download essential shipping information from these devices, anywhere and at any time of day. The launch of this new application follows the release, in April 2011, of a similar e-Business application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.

According to Benoît Lebrun, Safmarine’s Global e-Business Manager, “This new application once again demonstrates Safmarine’s leadership in providing innovative business solutions to the shipping industry.

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Ugandan greenhouse tomato farmers have vowed to ‘chase’ foreign tomatoes out of supermarkets in the country soon. At the moment, leading supermarket chains like Uchumi, Nakumatt and Shoprite sell tomatoes from Kenya and South Africa.

Charles Byanyima, who currently produces at least 250kg of tomatoes every week, says if all greenhouse tomato growers united, they would have the potential to take over the local market. A survey across major supermarkets shows that most of them are selling imported tomatoes and other vegetables.

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Cotton farmers are questioning the feasibility of government’s proposed cotton price stabilisation fund meant to regulate fluctuating prices.

Farmers who talked to Prosper said a similar setting dubbed – the cotton fund- has been around for the last two years, but it has not shielded them from meeting sharp losses from unstable price.

Mr Matias Osege, a prominent cotton farmer in Sere village in Tororo district, said the ginners deducted Shs600 per Kilogramme from last season’s sales to raise funds that would cover them when prices drop.

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