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Zimbabwe:NCC, cotton merchants & ginners to review output |
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2004-9-13
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Under the aegis of National Cotton Council, cotton merchants and ginners will meet in Harare next week to review this year''s selling season.
The meeting would afford the council an opportunity to consolidate figures of the amount of seed cotton that was bought during the selling season.
The country was expected to produce about 300 million kilogrammes this year.
Some of the merchants and ginners have already expressed optimism that the target of 300 million kilogrammes of seed cotton, which was expected to be purchased this season, would be reached.
By late last month indications were that the bulk of the seed cotton that was produced under the current farming season had already been taken up by merchants and ginners.
Indications were that more than 75 percent of the crop has been purchased.
The selling season was expected to end this month as some produce was expected to come in from areas such as Chisumbanje, Chimhanda and Dotito, which had a late-planted crop.
Cottco indicated in July that it had already surpassed the amount of seed cotton that they purchased last year.
Cottco bought a total of 147,000 metric tonnes of seed cotton followed by Cargill with 43,500 metric tonnes while other merchants and ginners purchased between 24,400 metric tonnes and 2,700 metric tonnes.
This year''s selling season was nearly marred by wrangles on prices as cotton producers wanted $3,000 per kg, which was above the $1,800 per kg that the merchants/ginners had indicated that they could afford to pay.
The farmers claimed that the $3,000 per kg was sufficient to cover their production costs and which gives them a 50 percent return on their investment.
Various solutions were thrown around with one suggestion being that a possible solution was to combine the current price of $1,800 per kg and the price wanted by the farmers of $3,000 per kg then divide the sum by two which comes to about $2,400.
The resultant price would mean that merchants and farmers would have given in by the same margin of $600.
However, a solution was found after Government and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Harare increasing the price by $100 per kilogramme.
The country is expected to realise about US$150 million from the sale of about 300 million kilogrammes expected this season.
This would make the crop one of the country''s
largest agricultural exports, eclipsing tobacco, which is expected to earn close to US$90 million this season.
Cotton has been the second largest agricultural export after tobacco, contributing an average of
US$150 million in gross earnings annually.
Out of the total volume of the cotton crop produced in the country, 70 percent goes to the international market while the local market takes up 30 percent.
Zimbabwe''s cotton is highly regarded since it is handpicked. |
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