Online Reporter
Edgar Vhera
Specialist Writer – Agribusiness
FARMERS have welcomed the recent 17-percent cotton price increase but expressed reservations over the pricing model used, which they described as excluding the cost of production and prevailing world market indices.
The farmers argue that the price was more friendly to ginners and did not treat seed cotton producers fairly and allegedly left them to shoulder their production expenses.
Zimbabwe Farmers union (ZFU) secretary general, Mr Paul Zakariya, said a fairer and more reasonable cost model should be a ‘cost plus margin’ and urged the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development and the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA) to take the farmers’ concerns into account when coming up with pricing models.
“This is the position that ZFU advocates for and hopes and believes that AMA and its parent ministry will take it into account,” he said.
AMA recently increased the seed cotton buying price by 17 percent from last year’s US$0,30 per kilogramme to US$0,35 for the 2026 marketing season that started yesterday.
AMA chief executive officer, Ms Alice Mapfiza, said the season would run from May 18 to July 31, 2026, adding that 173 permanent and 398 mobile common buying points (CBPs) had been created countrywide.
“Buying is strictly at AMA designated buying points using the AMA database and contractors are to deploy appropriate payment channels within reach of the farmers from their nearest buying point,” she said.
Ms Mapfiza warned against the movement of cotton bales from CBPs unless they had been fully paid for.
