Zimpapers Logo

Edgar Vhera

Agriculture Specialist Writer

THE combined percentage increase for this year’s Grade A and B seed cotton rose by 65 percent, from  5.6 percent in the 2023 season to 9.2 percent this year.

This comes as the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) recently revealed that 71 percent of this year’s seed cotton had been graded as at September 24 this year.

Statistics released by the authority show that seed cotton assigned the A grade rose from two to four percent while that with B grade also climbed from three to five percent.

As it stands, the 4, 3 percent achieved so far this year, is the highest A grade since 2017.

Source: AMA

Cotton Producers and Marketers Association (CPMA) chairman, Mr Stewart Mubonderi said this was a welcome development as Government seeks to incentivise and expand production of quality crop.

“What we have agreed as merchants, starting this 2024/25 season, is to widen the widen grade-based price differential with A grade attracting a very high price with D grade fetching a very low price to discourage production of a poor quality crop.

“We will not reward mediocre but the best, the idea is to promote quality,” he said.

Mr Mubonderi said all contractors must give farmers their full earnings on time.

Cotton Ginners Association (CGA) chairman, Mr Jonas Chindanya said the rise in better grades may be a result of this year’s low cotton volumes and the resultant minimal handling.

“I think the improvement in A and B grades may be a result of the small size of the crop this past season and the subsequent meticulous handling of the produce.

“Will see what happens this coming season when volumes are expected to increase as a result of the better season forecast,” the CGA chair said.

Cotton Council of Zimbabwe (CCOZ) chief executive officer Engineer Chris Murove said in addition to the grade-based pricing arrangement, there was need to provide farmers with right quantity of inputs on time.

“Buying the seed cotton at a viable price, with grade differentials that incentivise farmers to improve their grades as well as paying the grade differentials is important.

“AMA needs to enforce the payment of grade differentials before issuing buying licences to contractors,” observed Eng Murove.

The Government introduced a grade-based differential seed cotton pricing system for the 2023 cotton marketing season to motivate production of quality cotton following an outcry from clothing and textile industry stakeholders at the 2022 World Cotton Day over the poor crop quality of crop produced by local farmers.

Grade A seed cotton was bought at US$0, 46 per kilogramme while grade B fetched US$0, 43. Grade C seed cotton received a price of US$0, 41 with grade D attracting US$0, 40.

This marketing season, grade A received a premium price of US$0, 43 per kilogramme with grade B fetching US$0, 39. Grade C fetched three cents less with a price of US$0, 36 while grade D anchored the table at US$0, 32.