The Zambia Cotton Ginners Association (ZCGA) has disclosed that the cotton industry is currently facing a significant crisis as several factories remain idle due to a severe shortage of raw materials.
The cotton industry has been a critical part of the global economy for centuries, providing vital raw materials for clothing, textiles, and other essential products. However, the current situation has made many factories be forced to remain idle leading to significant financial losses for businesses and a decrease in employment opportunities.
The impact of this shortage is not limited to the cotton industry alone, as it has also potential to affect other industries that rely on cotton products.
The Zambia Cotton Ginners Association (ZCGA) has revealed that cotton ginneries have become idle due to insufficient production of cotton.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, ZCGA Executive Secretary Chabala Maliyangu disclosed that several companies own multiple ginneries but are unable to utilize them all due to an insufficient supply of cotton.
Maliyangu noted that Zambia has the potential to produce cotton of up to 2.5 metric tons but is only achieving a portion of the potential production capacity.
He said that although the production of cotton has increased this year from 25,000 metric tons produced last year to 45, 000 metric tons produced this year, the production capacity is still far from reaching the ginning capacity that cotton companies have which is over 400, 000 metric tons.
He therefore attributed the increase in cotton production this year to the high cost of growing other crops which prompted farmers to go back to growing cotton.
“A lot of our cotton factories or ginneries are idle because there is insufficient production of cotton to feed these ginneries. In terms of ginning capacity, there is more than enough capacity to gin cotton. Some companies own multiple ginneries but they only use one because of an insufficient supply of cotton I think Zambia’s cotton yield is probably one of the lowest in the world our yield per kg of cotton is quite low compared to West Africa where they produce about a minim of a ton but for us, our production per kg is between 300 – 400 kilograms of cotton which is unfortunate because cotton varieties here in Zambia are quite good and they can go up to 2.5 metric tons which is the potential target but we are only achieving a faction of that potential,’’ he said.
“The production for cotton has almost doubled this year, last year we produced 25, 000 metric tons of cotton produced while this year we have around 45, 000 metric tons but this production is far from the ginning capacity that we have. We can gin 400, 000 metric tons of cotton so 45,000 metric tons produced this year is a drop in the ocean. There is still a very large gap. The increase in production can be attributed to several factors but the prices of other crops that were high played a part because farmers went back to cotton which has better prices than other crops. Then I think because cotton does well in certain regions where rain is a problem. It’s a very resilient crop, especially in the valley areas of Southern Province and Eastern Province,’’ said Maliyangu.
