This year cotton buying season is
reportedly picking up gradually, with producers opting to supply at the
previously disputed price of 660/- per kilogramme of seed cotton.
The crop buying season opened some two
weeks ago, having been delayed for almost a month due to price disputes
between buyers, growers and Tanzania Cotton Board (TCB), the industry
regulator, as buyers offered 450/- and producers vowed never to supply
at below 1,000/-.
Prolonged negotiations led to the
wrangling parties to settle for the 660/- price, with the district
councils forced to reduce cotton levy from five to two per cent of the
buying price.
TCB Acting Director General Gabriel Mwalo told the 'Daily
News' in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the crop buying is going on well,
urging farmers to sell their produce now as there are little prospects
of price appreciation.
“It’s better for farmers to sell their
produce now that the price is 660/- because I don’t see prospects of the
prices going up,” Mr Mwalo said. Reports from the lake zone where
cotton is mainly produced have it that many cotton buyers remain
inactive due to financial constraints.
“Many commercial banks have been
reluctant to issue loans to buyers because they (banks) perceive the
660/- price as unrealistic with the prevailing world market prices,” an
official with Mwanza-based ginner said in a phone interview from the
lakeside city.
Although some politicians from the cotton producing areas
had earlier advised their voters against selling cotton unless they get
the 1,000/- price, desperate producers were allegedly selling the cash
crop to black market buyers at 300/- per kilogramme.
“The delayed crop buying season
subjected cotton growers to sheer desperation, with some bowing to
temptations by exploitative middlemen to sell the crop at 300/-,” the
official said, noting that most of cotton growers rely on earnings from
cotton sales to buy food.
Members of Parliament from the cotton
growing areas, debating the 2012/2013 national budget estimates in
Dodoma last month, stood firm against cotton farmers selling the cash
crop cheaply, urging producers instead to keep the produce, pending
price appreciation.
The MPs described the cotton sector, which supports
over 16 million people in the country’s 42 districts, as highly
sensitive and deserving specialised attention. They proposed
construction of cotton processing factories to boost local demand of the
country’s white gold.
Source: The Daily News,http://www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Masato Masato
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