Government is understood to have increased the price from last seasons 50cents to $1.
Chinese buyers who have established bases at Mtora Growth Point, Gokwe North, to buy the white gold are still using the old price. Their plan to use front-men to move around communities buying the cotton on basis of cash payment has been met with stiff resistance.
We will not sell our cotton for something that betrays the hard labour and expenses we used to produce, a farmer at Maserukwe told The Zimbabwean. A snap survey in the area also showed that usual buying points at Chodha and Musurowenzou were deserted, with only employees of buying companies milling around.
Employees at Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) bases said they were yet to start purchases because information on the price they should use had not been relayed to them. Peoples livelihoods in Gokwe are heavily depended on cotton farming as the area does not have other meaningful alternatives like mining.
Post published in: Economy