Experts dissect cotton sector revival plans

Experts say the country’s dying cotton industry cannot recover unless value-addition firms such as David Whitehead and Sons Company (DWSC) are revived.

The experts believe DWSC successor, which came in through privatisation, is not doing enough on value addition.

Veteran cotton industry expert Duncan Warren said in an interview on Monday that the textile industry suffered a knock when DWSC, which was spinning the lint into yarn or thread for the local sector, was privatised.

He said: “I have followed the cotton sector since mid-1970 when the DWSC was buying about 90 percent of Malawi’s cotton, processing it into threads for other garments players to use.

“It means there was value-addition and farmers had the market for their cotton.”

Warren, who is also former chairperson of Cotton Council  of Malawi, said after privatisation of DWSC, there is need to export cotton which has been expensive for a landlocked country such as Malawi due to high transport cost, making the country’s cotton uncompetitive on the global market.

He said Zimbabwe is now doing well with cotton and textile industries because it has taken advantage the DWSC’s situation after realising that it cannot do without the government owning the company which, like DWSC Malawi, was also privatised during a similar period.

Warren said since privatisation, cotton production has been declining as farmers lack motivation because the government lost interest in promoting the sector, leaving the available ginners failing to access cotton.

Meanwhile, commenting ion the declining production, Balaka-based Malawi Cotton Company field manager Yohane Jim said last week the factory is only accessing 3 000 metric tonnes (MT) against production capacity of 30 000MT, a situation which is proving costly for the factory’s sustainability.

He said: “Cotton business relies on volumes, but for many years, we are only getting 3 000 metric tonnes while we have an installed capacity of 30 000 metric tonnes.

“This means we just operate to run the machine and this is very costly to any business.”

Jim said this partly explains why other ginners have closed shop because they cannot meet their expenses with low volumes.

He said the Balaka-based firm recently invested in an oil plant in the district and a textile factory in Salima in a $64 million (about K112 billion) combined investment which is not operating because of lack of  lint supply.

 “We currently only separate the seed from the lint. The oil plant and the textile factory are not operating because we need more cotton based on their capacity.

“The textile factory alone, for instance, has 11 000 metric tonnes capacity,” said Jim.

In a separate interview, Masapa Cotton Company managing director Osward Lutepo, whose firm has a seed multiplication factory in Salima, said the industry’s revival depends on combined efforts government,  textile companies and finance institutions.

“The textile industry is mostly struggling because apart from Admarc, which gets funding from the government and other foreign companies that have sound capital, financial institutions are not supportive when it comes to financing of cotton sector players,” he said.

Toleza Cotton field manager Daniel Kalowekamo attributed the challenges to lack of interest on the part of government which has brought a huge crisis in the cotton and textile sector.

He said the government’s lack of seriousness in revamping the sector has resulted in farmers switching to other crops.

Meanwhile, Cotton Farmers Association of Malawi president Labson Zidana faulted the Cotton Council of Malawi for failing to subsidise cotton seeds so that farmers can access hybrid and high productivity seeds to increase production.

In an interview, Cotton Council of Malawi executive director Cosmas Luwanda said efforts are there to increase production of cotton to the level of 2011 when output hit a record 100 000MT and most of the initiatives will come to play in the forthcoming growing season.

Cotton is one of the most lucrative crops along its value chain and used to be one of the country’s top four foreign exchange earners.