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English/Nat While the farm-occupation crisis in Zimbabwe shows no signs of abating, it's already delivered a severe blow to the country's downtrodden economy. Deliveries of the tobacco harvest - Zimbabwe's biggest hard-currency earner - have been disrupted on the eve of the crucial tobacco auction season, which is due to start on Wednesday. About a thousand farms have been seized since February by armed black squatters, and two white farmers with links to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, have been killed this month. President Robert Mugabe has insisted that the occupations are a justified protest by land-hungry blacks against a few thousand whites who own about a third of the nation's productive land. But opponents of the government accuse Mugabe of allowing the violent occupations to shore up his flagging popularity ahead of national elections expected to be called in May. At a tobacco warehouse in Harare, workers off-load bales of leaves destined for the international market. It's here that the broader implications of the farm-occupation crisis for Zimbabwe's economy can already be seen. Buyers are due to gather at the warehouse on Wednesday for the season's opening tobacco auctions. This time however, only a fraction of the usual harvest will be up for sale. Up to 90-thousand bales would normally be available for auction in the first week. But so far only six thousand bales of tobacco have been delivered. SOUNDBITE: (English) "It's been a very, very slow demand for floor space. We have booked at the moment approximately six thousand bales to sell tomorrow on the first day of sales with a further two-and-a-half thousand booked on the second day - that is the only tobacco that we have booked at this time. In a normal season - the first day of bookings we will fill three to four days on the first day - so it has been very slow." SUPER CAPTION: Tobacco warehouse spokesman Tobacco is one of the pillars of Zimbabwe's ailing economy. The country is the world's second biggest tobacco exporter after Brazil, earning (USdlrs) 335 (m) million last year alone. Delayed returns from tobacco are expected to hit financial markets by preventing farmers from honouring debts to local banks. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/256f98099f59d0d621c54fdd88e9543a Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork