Zimbabwe govt to revive cotton marketing board

20 Nov '13

2 min read

The Government of the southern African country of Zimbabwe intends to revive and re-introduce its Cotton Marketing Board (CMB) in order to actively participate in the marketing of the crop which is expected to boost production and viability of the textiles sector in the country.

Joseph Made, the Agricultural, Mechanization and Irrigation Minister of Zimbabwe, said the Government was in the process of preparing legal instruments to deal with the re-establishment of the board, which was privatized in 1994, reports Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald.

According to the Minister, the Zimbabwean Government is currently synchronizing the country’s Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) act, in order to resuscitate and restructure the CMB.

The AMA act does not apply only to cotton and it was necessary to take up the issue of re-inventing CMB as cotton is one of the most important crops in terms of the country’s economic growth, and the CMB would be looking at the marketing of the crop independently, he added.

The Agricultural Minister said that there is a lot to be done for the revival of cotton production in the country because it is the biggest income generating activity in many rural families.

The CMB was privatized in 1994, under the Economic Structural Adjustment Program which gave birth to Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (COTTCO), a private company working towards the development of cotton sector in the country.

Last month, the AMA and cotton ginners in Zimbabwe agreed on a minimum funding per merchant of US$ 1 million to enhance cotton production this season. Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between them, the contractors would have to declare the quantity of raw cotton they want to buy at the beginning of the season.

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