Government gazetted $1 per kg for best quality cotton which is pegged on Grade A as the producer price for the “white gold”.
Farmers say companies like Graffax; Tarrafin; Cottco; Olam and Alliance are using the $1 price, but Chinese-owned Sino and Veridas will only pay 85 cents per kg of highest grade cotton.
“To end this unfairness, we think it will be prudent if we sell our crop in the same way in which tobacco is sold – by auction. Both crops are important to our country and so the same approach of sale should be instituted,” said Taurai Nyashanu, who been farming cotton for 16 years.
Other farmers who talked to The Zimbabwean echoed the same sentiments, saying the producers should have power over the price of their commodity.
“At the moment, prices are gazetted for us without any consultation whatsoever,” another farmer noted.
Chief Nemangwe, Mike Katyavazungu, told this paper that the companies operating in his area were misinforming farmers saying the price of cotton was about to fall on the global market as a way of pressurising them to release their produce.
“That trick has been used by the buyers through their agents for some time now because the farmers have been saying if the prices are not reviewed to at least $2 for the highest grade, they would not sell their cotton,” the chief said. He agreed that auctioning would be the best way to go.
Post published in: Zimbabwe News