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| Poor prices hamper cotton production |
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by
Taonga Sabola, 06 March 2007
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02:30:59
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The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has singled out poor prices by buyers as one of the major factors affecting the development of cotton production in the country.
Preliminary production estimates released by the ministry last week indicate that despite various efforts put in place by government to accelerate cotton production in the country, the crop will only register a marginal increase of 490 metric tonnes to 59,043 from 58,553 metric tonnes registered last year.
Cotton has been earmarked as one of the strategic crops with potential to bring in more finances to the country amid the worldwide anti-smoking lobby and poor prices that have hit tobacco—the country’s number one foreign exchange earner—in recent years.
Secretary for Agriculture Patrick Kabambe said in an interview on Monday the situation surrounding cotton is similar to that in the tobacco industry.
“Just as in tobacco, cotton production this year has been affected by poor prices which has forced many farmers to stop growing the crop and focus on other profitable ventures,” he said.
Kabambe could, however, not give the exact number of farmers who have walked out of cotton production due to poor prices.
Government last year put K30 per kilogramme as a minimum price at which buyers were expected to buy the crop from farmers.
However, like in the tobacco industry, cotton buyers resisted to offer the recommended price set by government and were said to have been buying the crop at around K27 per kilogramme in the just ended cotton marketing season.
Currently, government is begging members of the Southern Africa Customs Union (Sacu) to waive rules of origin requirement because Malawi is failing to produce enough cotton to meet the required percentage of locally produced raw materials to be used in manufacturing textile products for export to Sacu members.
Similary, the country is failing to take full advantage of the trade window opened by the United States of America under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) due to failure to produce enough cotton to meet the demand.
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