‘Malawi cotton prices best in the region’

Vice-chairman of the Cotton Development Fund, Duncan Warren, says for the first time in years, Malawi offered better prices to its farmers beating countries like Zimbabwe and Zambia which are renowned for buying cotton above set minimum prices.

Before the cotton buying season commenced between April and May this year government and buyers had set K150 per kg as the minimum price for buying the crop but a week later it moved to K200.

Speaking in an interview on Wednesday, Warren said in May grade A cotton in Zimbabwe fetched 41 cents (K 150) per kg while in Zambia it was being bought at 36 cents (K 133) per kg.

Said Warren, “This is the first time that cotton prices in Malawi have been better than those of Zimbabwe and Zambia. I could not believe it when I got the information from our counterparts who deal with cotton issues in the two countries but after cross-checking it was found out to be true.

“Infact in Zambia there are reports that some farmers were so angry and nearly burned their cotton crop while it was in the field.”

He attributed the good prices in the country to quality crop which farmers produced and the coming in of many buyers.

“There was a lot of competition on the market this year such that 16 ginners available were scrambling to get a fair share of the produce. In fact if we divide the 41 000 tonnes it means each ginner bought 2 562 tonnes which in normal circumstances is not enough to cover overheads,” said Warren.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ulemu Chilapondwa said it is pleasing that Malawi offered its cotton farmers better prices than other producers in the region.

“There are several factors that made cotton prices better this year some of which include an enabling environment of growing and buying the crop, use of good seeds and production of quality cotton which swayed the buyers at the market,” said Chilapondwa.

He said the Ministry of Agriculture worked closely with the ginners and farmers and there was no imposition of prices on the buyers.

“As government we managed to convince companies to buy our cotton at very good prices and our discussions yielded results. This coming year we will also work hard to make sure that farmers access good seeds so that the germination rate should be better than this year,” said Chilapondwa.

Cotton is one of the major export crops that wire in forex since the economy is agro-based.

The crops that the country export in large quantities include tobacco, sugar, coffee, tea and cotton.