Cotton producer price to be decided today

Published: 13 May 2014

Farmers and ginners are today expected to hold a final meeting to decide on the producer price of cotton for the 2014 marketing season.

The negotiations between the two parties have been opened as a way of luring back farmers who had abandoned the crop.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president, Wonder Chabikwa confirmed that the two parties were going to hold a final meeting on the pricing.

"We have not been meeting after a small misunderstanding between ginners and farmers. Today we are going to decide on the price and hopefully we will come up with a viable price for farmers," he said. Some stakeholders in the cotton sector said ginners were considering using a uniform price and this was likely to affect the marketing of the crop.

Last season ginners were offering different prices as they competed to buy cotton from farmers.

Meanwhile growers with an early cotton crop have started picking while others said they were waiting for the announcement of producer price. Chegutu farmer, Jeremiah White said he was afraid of incurring losses if he hired labour to pick the crop.

"It is better for me to start harvesting maize. What if I hire labour to pick cotton and ginners announce low produce prices? I do not want to incur losses," he said.

Some farmers said they were growing cotton since they are used to growing the crop. Enipher Zawe said she expected a higher price since few farmers planted the crop.

"Most people switched to tobacco and I hope the few who grew the crop will get a higher price," she said. Farmers are now take a business decision to enter into lucrative crops like tobacco and the cotton sector should be revived if it is going to attract growers.

Cotton council spokesman Garikayi Msika said nearly 300 000 hectares of cotton were planted this season with expected average yield of 700 kgs per hectare. He said farmers could boost yields if they used adequate fertilisers.
- BH24

Tags: Cotton,