TIMB to test run electronic auction system

THE Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board is targeting to do a test run for electronic auction system at one of the floors before end of the season, its spokesperson has said.

“The software programme is about 90 percent complete and our plan is to do a test run this season and fully implement the programme in 2017,” said Mr Isheunesu Moyo in an interview.

“We have procured the hardware and are left with a few things.”

TIMB contracted an Indian firm to automate the auction system in a move expected to reduce side marketing and illegal sales. Electronic auctioning is only done in India and Malawi. The rest of the tobacco farming countries use the contract system. In Zimbabwe, about 20 percent of tobacco is sold through the auction system.

Zimbabwe, one of the major producers of tobacco in Africa has three main auction floors. By electronically tagging individual farmers’ details on their bales, this will go far in reducing side-marketing, illegal sales and theft. Electronic auctioning of tobacco will also reduce the processing time for grower payments and eliminates illicit floor activities, for example ticket tampering. The e-marketing system will also ensure that the buying process is transparent and eliminates the possibility of connivance among buyers.

Another benefit to be derived from the e-marketing system is that tobacco buyers will receive real-time data as the auction process happens and will therefore be able to tally bales when they reach the dispatch section of the sales floor. The TIMB, whose mandate of to promote orderly marketing of tobacco, will also be able to monitor the sale process and this on its own will make the whole process more transparent.