Tobacco Sales Secrecy

Press, Issue 30997, 1 March 1966, Page 17

Tobacco Sales Secrecy

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) SALISBURY, Feb. 27. Rhodesia’s key annual tobacco auctions will open in Salisbury later than usual—on March 29 under strict security secrecy, it has been announced.

The sales are a major factor in the Rhodesian economy

and will play a decisive part in the success or failure of the three-month-old unilateral declaration of independence by the lan Smith regime.

Normally a major tourist attraction in the capital, the sales had been expected to start in the first week of March.

A Tobacco Marketing Board official said that unfavourable weather had delayed ripening of the crop and that deliveries to the city’s auction floors had been slow since they began some two weeks’ ago. SECURITY FENCE A high security fence is being erected around the buildings which house the tobacco auction floors, and the police are expected to maintain a constant patrol while the sales are in progress to prevent unauthorised people from entering. This season the tobacco will be sold by a new tobacco marketing corporation established under a Bill passed last week. The corporation will fix reserve prices on tobacco grades and any tobacco failing to reach the reserve price will be bought by the corporation. The corporation will also be responsible for the disposal of the entire crop and for the distribution of the proceeds “equitably” among the growers. Tobacco is a mainstay of the Rhodesian economy. Last year's crop of some 245 million lb brought in £33.75 million in foreign exchange.

While this year’s output is being kept a secret, it is reliably estimated to be in the region of 200 million lb. But with Britain—the tradi-

tional major purchaser of Rhodesian tobacco—and many other world buyers refusing to purchase it, the fate of this year’s crop and the possible

repercussions on the country’s economy and future have yet to be seen. In a bid to beat the sanctions, this year’s tobacco auctions will be conducted under a revolutionary new system, the auctions being carried out in such a way as to enable “back-door” buyers to bid without anyone knowing their identity.