Zimbabwe Absurdity

Maybe I’m just a slow learner or maybe I just like sharing information (basically just showing off). I do know that after nearly 11 years in the business of growing seedlings I do know a lot about it.

The tobacco companies are going “green” which is a bit ironic considering that people die from smoking cigarettes. It seems that they are trying to force contracted growers to grow their own fuel (gum trees) for curing the tobacco. In theory that should be good for my business as we are good at growing the Eucalyptus seedlings that they require.

First was Matthew who has been contracted to grow gum seedlings for Tobacco Company A: “We are not in competition with you – we are only growing trees for our contract farmers so I was wondering if you could help me with some information”.  So I helped him out but intentionally forgot some vital information. He made no mention of paying me.

Second was Colin who works for Tobacco Company B: He was much smarter and dangled a juicy carrot of an inferred large order of gum tree seedlings (“It makes much more sense if you do them, at least for this year”). I was bled of information on several occasions and the order has not materialised – maybe he had no intention of getting me an order. Sucker me.

Third was Claire who has her own nursery business  not related to tobacco: Bless her, she offered to pay straight away and I will go around to her setup next week to see if I can help but I think it is really just a management issue.