AVOCADO farmers in Rungwe District have received over 10m/- from Mbembati Trading company which had collected and transported their produce without making payment.

The company made the payment following  orders from Mbeya Regional Commissioner Juma Homera, who gave the company 48-hours to settle the debt, warning of legal action if it failed to comply.

During an inspection tour of development projects and listening to community concerns in Rungwe, Homera received complaints from farmers about being denied payment by the company, which had been purchasing their product for a long time.

Upon hearing the complaint, Homera told the company’s owners to pay the farmers or face legal measures including arrest and possible imprisonment.

The company recently paid the full amount owed to the farmers and explained that the delay was due to product spoilage.

Erasto Mbembati, the company's director, said the products were taken to a washing facility in Makambako, Njombe, before being shipped to India, where there is a market for the same.

He explained that upon washing the fruits in Makambako, they discovered that fungal disease  had attacked them,  causing black spots.  

Realising that the fruits could not be sent to the market, the company decided to discard them to avoid damaging the market for the crop.

“We had secured  the market for 40 tonnes of the product     last year in  India   but when we shipped them to Njombe, we found they were spoiled, and we had to discard them, which caused big losses and delayed payments for the farmers,” Mbembati said.

He noted that the company incurred losses by paying the farmers for the spoiled fruits and also had to pay fines for the delayed delivery to buyers.

Mbembati requested the Ministry of Agriculture to help farmers with pestcides to prevent fruit spoilage, which had caused losses to both farmers and buyers.

Some of the farmers who received their payments expressed their gratitude to the government for helping them get their rights and called for systems to be put in place to prevent future delays.

Yusta Patrick, one of the farmers, said she was owed 1.88m/- which was paid in installments until the Regional Commissioner’s intervened.

She mentioned that the company had worked with them for many years without challenges, which made them patient during the period of non-payment.

“I was paid yesterday. We thank the government for helping us, and we hope the company continues buying  our produce   since we’ve worked with them for a long time,” she said.

Wilson Bukuku requested that the government to assist them with subsidies for sulfur-based fertilizers to prevent fungal disease that has been damaging their fruits and affecting the market.

He mentioned that the government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, had promised to help them  as it had supported  cashew farmers in Lindi and Mtwara regions whose yields faced similar fungal diseases.