Emmerson Njanjamangezi, Group Features Editor 
OVER 16 000 metric tonnes (mt) of cotton seed have been delivered to Cottco so far, as the marketing season for the white gold takes shape following the government’s resolution to pay farmers for last year’s produce.
The State-controlled Cottco had been struggling to pay farmers $1,5 billion for the 2020 cropping season, leaving the sector in disarray.
The payment impasse had demoralised farmers from delivering the crop this marketing season, fomenting fertile grounds for side marketing for the crop.
“…the 2021 cotton marketing season commenced on 18 May 2021 with a producer price of ZW$85/kg for seed cotton delivered to Cottco. A price subsidy will be availed to Cottco only, for the Presidential Input Scheme, with part of the payment being in foreign currency at a rate of USD10 per bale,” Information and Publicity minister Monica Mutsvangwa told reporters this week.
“Deliveries across the provinces as at 3 June 2021 are as follows: Mashonaland Central, 560.2 mt; Mashonaland East, 360 mt, Manicaland, 764 mt, Masvingo, 5 808.6 mt, Mashonaland West, 6 256.4 mt, and Midlands, 2 912.2 mt.”
Last month, the government indicated its intention to increase its shareholding in Cottco as part of plans to turn around the struggling firm.
The government currently holds a 37 percent stake in the company after a debt-to-equity swap of US$56 million in 2015.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya told Parliament’s committee on Lands and Agriculture that the cash strapped firm was struggling to access credit lines from local banks because of its high credit risk status.
Official data shows that the cotton value chain sector sustains more than 400 000 households and has a potential of generating significant foreign currency.
Zimbabwe’s cotton production tanked to a low of 28,000 mt in the 2015/16 agricultural season before rebounding to 143,000 mt in the 2017/18 season and then falling to 85,000 mt last year.
Cotton is one of Zimbabwe’s major cash crops, and contributes to economic growth and better livelihoods among growers.
