eBusiness Weekly
Kudzanai Sharara
“Gore rino tinofa nemari (This year we will make money),” said Gloria Muzamindo (not real name) as she looked with glee at the long winding queue of trucks carrying tobacco, snaking along the roads in the Willovale industrial area, where the country’s leading tobacco auction floor Tobacco Sales Floor is located.
Every year, the opening of the tobacco auction floors brings with it business and employment opportunities for many Zimbabweans, including Gloria, who for years, has been running a kiosk at the auction floors, cooking and selling food to farmers.
“When I see such long queues, I know, there are many mouths to be fed and likewise money to be made,” said Gloria as she headed home around 10 pm, after a long day of hard work at the auction floors, cooking sadza among other food items for the hungry tobacco farmers.
“Let me go and rest now as tomorrow is another long day. As you can see this queue is more than 2 kilometres long and by 4:00 am, more trucks would have joined, meaning demand for breakfast, lunch and supper among other non-conventional meals will be high.”
TSF is also the only place accessible to farmers outside working hours. Deplorable as it is, its the only place where farmers, even those selling at other auction floors can find a place to sleep albeit on a pavement or toilet. This means more business for traders.
“This is a good sign that we can make some money and be able to pay for school fees without much of a hustle like what happened at the start of the first term when we didn’t have this market,” said Gloria who is unemployed and usually survives on selling fruits and vegetables in the high density suburb of Highfield.
“I sell fruits and vegetables at the gate of my house in Highfield, but there are so many of us doing the same thing in our street so the returns are meagre. But the auction floors provide me and my family with a much higher income and for the second school term and even the third term, we make enough to pay fees for my two daughters.
The tobacco selling season, just like Mbare Musika, Mupedzanhamo near the CBD and Siyaso is a mini economy on its own right, with different kinds of people and even government getting a piece of the tobacco money.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has never made it a secret that tobacco earnings are key in oiling the country’s economy, providing the country with the biggest foreign earnings from a single commodity. Banks should also be smiling all the way, to themselves literally, as most tobacco farmers are now required to open bank accounts with banks set to benefit from transactional charges.
This also extends to mobile money service providers whose products are now widely used in the country’s financial markets where cash is scarce. Illegal money changers and those from the old profession, prostitutes, are also here determined to have a share of the tobacco earnings.
But away from the formal sector, the informal sector, which is literally dominating in terms of employment creation in the country, is also staking its claim in enjoying the tobacco proceeds.
There are many like Gloria, who have also opened shop at the auction floors, selling food to the farmers, whom unfortunately, are forced to sleep at the auction floors waiting for their tobacco to be sold.
Due to the inefficiencies and shady dealings at the auction floors some farmers can spend as long as two weeks before their tobacco is turned into money, providing Gloria and many like her, with a job to wake up to everyday until the end of the selling season.
Marian Makonese is another one who looks forward to the tobacco selling season every year. Her business is to sell hessian bags and wrapping paper to the farmers. She says although sales in her line of business are good, there is increased competition this year.
“As you can see there are many of us here selling hessian bags, so it now depends on how long you have been in this business and whether you have created relationships with the farmers. Prior to the opening of the floors I communicate with my old customers to tell them I will be here and where they can find me. That way I can make more sales, otherwise competing for new customers would be very difficult.
Makonese says she gets her hessian bags from Propak, while the second hand wrapping paper is bought from Zimbabwe Leaf Tobacco at the end of each selling season when it will still be cheaper. She said at the end of the last selling season, they were getting the quantum roll of wrapping paper at $5, but now the same product is costing $30.
Transporters are also getting their fair share of the tobacco earnings.
With most independent farmers not owning their own trucks, they resort to hiring trucks to carry their produce to the auction floors. Langton Makumborenga, of Shamva, says demand for his truck is huge, but due to delays and inefficiencies at the auction floors, he can only make so many trips.
“Bringing farmers here is not a big issue, I can even make several trips a day from Shamva, but I am limited by the processes here, sometimes it takes a day or two before farmers can sell their crop and if they want me to carry other wares back home I might be forced to wait for them,” said Makumborenga.
He said apart from transporting the crop, he also provides most farmers with financing for transport to the floors and also for food during their stay at the auction floors.
“As you can see, my truck can only carry tobacco bales and most farmers normally come here as a family, which means I cannot carry them all, especially when two families are sharing the truck. So I give them money for transport and since it’s the start of the season, I also give them money for food.
“Sometimes I do it for free to entice them to give me business, but when demand is huge I can charge them five to 10 percent. Or I ask them to pay me back in US dollars with no interest charged,” he said.
Makumborenga, who also sales hessian bags to farmers, says he charges $10 per bale for transport but $14 if its transport plus his hessian bags. His small truck carries 30 bales.
There is also a market for pushcart operators, (vakomana vezvingoro). With so many merchants staking a claim to the tobacco produce and farmers also sharing transport, a market is also created for handcart operators. If the truck with the bigger portion of the crop is queuing at one auction floor but the balance is meant to be sold at another, then pushcart operators will have to be hired to carry tobacco bales to the other selling point.
Charging between $1 and $3 per trip, operators can make as much as $20 on a good day. This is however not as often as they would want as delays at the floors mean they might not easily get access into the floors meaning they have to wait longer before they can get another customer.
All sweaty and looking exhausted, Tinashe Mabhunu is not sure if they can get access into TSF arguing with his friends that they should have used the Glen Eagles entrance instead of the one at the other end.
“Shamwari watinyudza (My friend you brought us to the wrong side), we won’t get in, as you can see these guys are not letting anyone in. We are now stuck here, we should have used the other entrance.”
Its 9:30pm and tobacco is still being delivered and offloaded into the auction floors. TSF workers say the place is open 24 hours for accepting bales ahead of sales the next day.
As tough as it is, this has created an opportunity for Tinashe to fend for his family.
“We have no choice mudhara, totongotamba iri kurira (we dance to the tune),” said Mabhunu as his friend tried to negotiate with the security officers at the gate.
Technology failing traders
Like everywhere else, where informal traders are operating from, cell phone sellers are also strongly represented selling most cheap Chinese handsets.
Trust Mutero, said they had not recorded much sales so far in the season, as farmers are not accessing enough cash at the banks.
“Farmers were promised payments of at least $300 but this has not been the case as banks are failing to meet the daily demand. This means farmers are limited in terms of what they can buy.
“We were prepared for this as you can see we accept Ecocash and swipe, but technology in terms of connectivity has been failing us and farmers are losing confidence in the system.
“The number of failed transactions is too high and with most farmers not based in Harare, the inconvenience of tracing the money is a real burden that we don’t wish farmers to have,” said Mutero.
“There is need for bankers and mobile money service providers to upgrade their system so that farmers do not have to go through the cumbersome process of reversing failed transaction.
“With mobile money the most common issue is that on the customer’s side the transaction might go through but fail to reflect on the merchant’s side, which means we cannot release the product unless we get statements. This means we end up spending too much time saving one customer, which in my view is not good for business.
“After struggling to sale their tobacco, farmers should not go through banking processes that add to their inconvenience. Most of them are not well informed about banking process which means even us as traders we end up being inconvenienced as we try to help them get certain transactions corrected or ratified,” he said.
