In an interview with The Herald, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made threatened to bring all cotton marketing activities under Government control following reports that there are private buyers who are encouraging farmers to sell the crop to Mozambique where they are being paid in cash.
Said Made:
There are companies that we understand are encouraging farmers to sell cotton across the borders, If these companies continue to do that; as Minister of Agriculture, I have the power to invoke the control of the crop. If those who are directly involved in supporting the growing of the crop go into the position of undermining the Presidential Cotton Input Scheme, I will not hesitate to invoke a crop control measure. I would like to warn that companies that are doing that (encouraging surreptitious exports) are undermining the well-being of the country, they are undermining the resuscitation of industry, they are undermining the value chain of this country. We will not allow that.
He also told the Annual National Agribusiness Conference that they are working on laws to make facilitating cotton to be sold across Zimbabwe’s borders illegal.
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