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GOVERNMENT intends to re-introduce the Cotton Marketing Board to actively participate in marketing of the white gold in what is expected to boost production of the crop and viability of the industry.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Minister Dr Joseph Made confirmed in an interview yesterday that Government was in the process of preparing legal instruments that deal with the re-establishment of the board, which was privatised in 1994.

The Cabinet is synchronising the Agricultural Marketing Authority Act with the aim of resuscitating the Cotton Marketing Board.
“The Act has always been there, and the issue of CMB has been deemed urgent by the Cabinet because it remains one of the most critical parts of economic growth,” Dr Made said yesterday.

“As you know AMA does not stand for cotton only and we decided to work on coming up with CMB, that will be looking at cotton (marketing), independently.

Much needs to be done towards resuscitation of cotton production in the country because it remains the biggest income generators for many rural families.

CMB was privatised in 1994, under the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme which gave birth to Cotton Company of Zimbabwe, then a private company. Cottco grew in leaps and bounds until its listing on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in 1997.

The privatisation of Cottco came at about the same time as the commercialisation of Dairibord Marketing Board, now Dairibord Holdings.
However, some stakeholders have suggested CMB would be more helpful to the industry if it is re-established as a regulator; the same way the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board operates.

“Giving it a mandate similar to that of Grain Marketing Board seems to be retrogressive because GMB is struggling . . . it is failing to pay farmers and we cannot really afford to have that same situation in our cotton industry.

“AMA seems to have failed to bring sanity in cotton industry as evidenced by disorderly marketing. It will be welcome if CMB is re-established with mandate of ensuring efficient marketing of cotton,” said one analyst.

By participating in cotton marketing, CMB would only buy free cotton. About 98 percent of cotton in Zimbabwe is grown under contract schemes. The schemes were introduced when farmers were failing to access finance from the banks due to lack of collateral.

Funding for cotton farmers declined from about US$44 million in 2011 to US$22 million last season. This was largely because some merchants reduced their funding due to side marketing of contracted crop.

However, there is renewed interest in the production of cotton as farmer registration for the forthcoming season indicates that a total of 450 000 hectares could be put under crop in the 2013/14 season compared to 320 000 hectares planted in 2011/12.

Minister Made said while Government was considering the re-establishment of CMB, it was also looking at coming up with the Zimbabwe National Irrigation Authority and the Zimbabwe National Horticulture Authority. Minister Made added that “the Cabinet is working on establishing the Zimbabwe agricultural commodity exchange as clearly stated in the ZimAsset document.”