COTTON

Emilia Zindi – Agriculture Editor

The Agricultural Marketing Authority has approved 98 common buying points across Zimbabwe as the cotton marketing season begins, with prices again the bone of contention.

The Competition and Tariffs Commission last season banned unions from negotiating prices with ginners on behalf of farmers, but The Sunday Mail is reliably informed that a meeting between the two sides was held last week to discuss pricing.

Zimbabwe Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union president Mr Wonder Chabikwa said the Commission had lifted that ban on such engagements.

And Zimbabwe Farmers Union president Mr Abdul Nyathi said it was not a meeting on pricing per se.

“What the ginners did last week is that they wanted to offer USc30 per kg as an advance payment to farmers. After this advance payment, which is for all the grades, they said they would then pay the difference later after the grading as the USc30 was meant only to pay the farmers promptly on delivering their crop at the buying points,” said Mr Nyathi.

He said unions opposed the proposal because what was being offered as an advance payment was too little.

“We said what is this USc30 per kg based on since it is across the board for all grades from A to C? So we cannot really say we met to negotiate prices on behalf of farmers but it is the ginners who approached us and we have refused,” he said.

“We reminded them, the ginners, that even if they funded all the crop grown this season, they had not factored in the buying price in the contract forms. We, therefore, agreed that both parties go back to the drawing board and come up with production costs before we agree on the price.”

Cotton Ginners Association director-general Mr Godfrey Buka could not be reached for comment.

Mr Chabika told this paper that the Competition and Tariffs Commission had given unions the greenlight to negotiate prices with ginners and ginners last week proposed the advance of USc30 per kg payment payable at buying points before grading.

“We are of the opinion that we negotiate prices for all the grades, so that … farmers would know how much they will be owed after selling their crop.”

Growers said they expected nothing less than US$1 per kg.

“Anything below US$1 a kg will be unacceptable. The ginners are at it again as they are used to rob us while they make profits. We understand they contracted us but that does not give them the freedom to pay us peanuts,” charged cotton farmer Mr Aaron Nyamweda.

In the 2012/13 season, the country produced about 145 000 tonnes of cotton, which fell to 68 000 tonnes the following year.

The white gold has been key to livelihoods in cotton growing areas like Gokwe and Muzarabani, and its decline in output has hit families hard while also hurting the local textiles and clothing, and the oilseed sectors.

Major contractor Cotton Company of Zimbabwe was last year put under judicial management, while Cargill closed shop.

A report at the 73rd Plenary Meeting of the International Cotton Advisory Committee in 2014 said there were an estimated 170 000 small-scale cotton farmers in Zimbabwe, down from 200 000 in the 2012/13 season.

Mr Chabikwa said the fall in numbers was attributable to the high costs of inputs.

The Presidential Well-Wishers Inputs Scheme went some way in assisting by giving qualifying households 10kg of seed and 25kg of fertiliser each.