TIMB Gives Tobacco Merchants Two-Week Ultimatum
The government has ordered licensed tobacco merchants to start buying tobacco within the next two weeks or risk losing their licences.
The move comes after farmers began withdrawing their crop from auction floors in protest over prices as low as US$0.45 per kilogramme.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) says only seven of the country’s 44 registered merchants have been buying since the auction season opened. This has created a lack of competition, pushing prices down and frustrating growers.
In a letter to merchants, TIMB chief executive Emmanuel Matsvaire warned that companies failing to take part in the market could face consequences. Reads the letter:
“TIMB notes that your organisation has not yet participated on the buying floors for the 2026 tobacco marketing season.
“To prevent the hoarding of licences and ensure that all licensed buyers contribute meaningfully to the price-discovery process at the auction floors, the board directs that a period of 14 days is given for you to have utilised your licence.”
TIMB has also asked inactive merchants to explain why they have been absent and to indicate how much tobacco they plan to buy this season, which could lead to a revision of the national sales target.
In the first 24 hours of trading between 4 and 5 March, only 626,742 kilogrammes of tobacco, worth US$1.78 million, were sold.
Over the same period last year, 1,245,242 kilogrammes worth US$4.17 million were sold.
The average price this year opened at US$2.85 per kilogramme, down from US$3.35 in the first 24 hours of the 2025 season.
These figures represent a drop of around 50 per cent in volume and 57 per cent in value.
Authorities hope that getting more buyers back onto the auction floors will boost competition and help stabilise prices.
TIMB expects total tobacco sales this season to reach 400 million kilogrammes, up from 335 million kilogrammes in 2025.
