eBusiness Weekly
Martin Kadzere
The Cotton Ginners Association, Zimbabwe’s main lobby group for private cotton merchants, has appealed against their quotas for the 2018 buying season, arguing the allocations were too low and do not reflect their level of funding.
The Agriculture and Marketing Authority, which is responsible for orderly marketing of cotton, allocated 6 200 tonnes to four private ginners against a share of 85 0000 tonnes to Cottco, which is administering the Government contract scheme.
CGA president Mr Jonas Chindanya told Business Weekly that his association was appealing to AMA to have their allocations for this season reviewed upwards.
Ironically, industry players, including farmer organisations are already challenging the tonnage allocated to private merchants, insisting it is high despite the appeal.
Cottco financed nearly 400 000 farmers, with each grower getting inputs enough to plant a hectare.
“Their quotas are unrealistic and we have filed an appeal so that AMA can re-look at the allocations,” Mr Chindanya said.
The CGA president said the private firms funded 63 000 ha last year and the quotas were too low for the hectarage they sponsored.
“We supplied seeds, fertilisers and chemicals although not to the extent of Cottco,” he said.
Side marketing menace
The Government has for the past three years been financing production after output levels fell sharply, with the country recording the worst yield of 28 000 tonnes in 2015, the lowest since 1992. Since then, the government invested $130 million into cotton production, which saw thousand growers resuming production.
However, private companies have on several occasions been accused of side marketing, enticing farmers by offering prices slightly higher than the state producer price because they would have not invested much into production. Cottco is paying a minimum of 47c per kg but pays a top up adjustment of up to 9c for top grade.
Regional cotton prices
Farmers said private companies have been spending “very little” on production just to warrant their presence during the buying season. In some instances, they would target Cottco’s highlife funded areas by contracting relatives of their growers.
“These are the people they would use to buy cotton because they will also be registered in the AMA data base,” Cotton Producers and Marketers Association Stewart Mubonderi said while hitting at the authority for poor regulatory oversight.
“They only do cosmetic financing. Sometimes it is only seed but when AMA issue out the quotas, these private firms are considered to have offered full support,” he added.
Efforts to get a comment from AMA proved fruitless by the time of going to print.
