Online Reporter
Edgar Vhera-Specialist Writer – Agribusiness
The national cotton output for the 2026 marketing season reached more than 29 million kilogrammes, slightly overtaking last year’s 28,2 million kilogrammes.
The seed cotton production monitoring and validation exercise conducted by Government, the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA), contractors and farmer unions estimated the output to reach 38 500 this year.
According to the AMA market report dated September 4, all contractors had bought a cumulative 29 092 558 kilogrammes of seed cotton valued at US$7 127 677 and ZiG80 295 865.
The 2026 cotton marketing season officially ended on July 31 in most areas and mop-up sales have since been conducted in other areas.
Producer prices ranged between $0,35 and US$0,43 per kg.
Grade A fetched US$0,43 per kg, grade B US$0,41 per kg, grade C was pegged at US$0,38 per kg and grade D, US$0,35 per kg.
Farmers paid at the grade D price of US$0,35 per kg with 70 percent of the amount paid in United States dollars and the 30 percent balance in local currency as per the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) guidelines.
The AMA update showed that 68 percent of this year’s intake (19 843 502kg) had been graded with 81 percent falling in the lowest D grade as compared to last year’s 62 percent.
The C grade accounted for 18 percent with the B grade on 1,3 percent and A grade on 0, 5 percent.
Seed cotton is ginned into cotton lint (fibre) and by Zimbabwean industry standards a maximum yield of 41 percent is obtained depending on the type of ginnery and seed cotton quality with cotton seeds make up to 58 percent and the remaining balance constitutes processing trash.
The AMA report revealed that so far 5 983 811 kg of lint had been produced with 1, 3 percent falling in the good middling grade, 38 percent in the strict middling grade while 60,5 percent is in the middling grade.
Meanwhile, the proposed cotton production model for the 2026/27 season will see farmers getting a full input package under the credit input scheme.
“But this will be accompanied by a full recovery by contractors, including those advanced under the under the Presidential Inputs Programme (PIP).
“All inputs to be pooled in a common warehouse before any distribution is done to promote transparency and accountability,” said AMA.
The report said a cost-plus producer price will be instituted with such prices announced before planting.
To maintain order at Common Buying Points (CBPs) or common input distribution points and promote the visibility of AMA, the authority will place clerks at production and marketing time periods.
AMA said the deployment of the Agricultural Information Repository System (AIRS) is expected to also improve efficiencies of farmer registration and marketing, among other key activities.
In the 2026/27 farmer registration period, the authority will insist on the supply of GPS coordinates by each contractor, as a requirement for farmer registration.
