THE troubled Millennium Tobacco auction floors (MTF) has announced plans to reopen next week after indicating that they have fulfilled the necessary regulatory requirements, a development the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) denies.
Report by Tarisai Mandizha
MTF is in serious debt and had failed to register for this year’s marketing season in time due to working capital constraints.
MTF anchor shareholder, Edward Raradza said the company had reached an agreement with its creditors in a bid to resume business.
“We have made an arrangement of rescheduling all the loans with the bank,” he said. Raradza added that his company had met the TIMB minimum requirements and was awaiting TIMB approval to auction the golden leaf.
“We are hoping to start operating this coming week. We have fulfilled the TIMB minimum requirements and we are only waiting for TIMB to give us the license,” he said. Raradza said despite that the tobacco marketing season had already begun MTF would recover the lost ground.
He added that most tobacco farmers owing the auction floor were expected to deliver their cash crop to MTF despite a delay in opening the floors.
However, the tobacco industry regulator, TIMB chief executive officer Andrew Matibiri said MTF has not yet met the minimum requirements.
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“As far as l am concerned they have not fulfilled any requirements, but the board has to sit down and consider, ” he said.
Tobacco auction floors opened last week for the 2012/13 marketing season.
The three tobacco auction floors licensed to conduct the auctions are Tobacco Sales Floor Limited, Boka Tobacco Auction Floor and Premier Tobacco Auction Floors. TIMB projects that 170 million kg of the golden leaf will be brought to the auction floors this season.
Last year, 144 million kg of tobacco was sold, earning the country $525 million.
