The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (COTTCO) says it still owes farmers about 30 percent of payment for deliveries made by farmers last season, reported New Ziana.

Speaking to journalists recently, COTTCO chief executive officer, Priscilla Mutembwa said that efforts were underway to pay all farmers’ outstanding payments before the onset of the 2022/23 summer cropping season. She said:

We are trying to improve the production as well as how we can be more prepared to be able to work better with the farmers in terms of input distribution and farmer payments.

We still owe some farmers about 30 percent of the amount that has been delivered which we are currently working on very vigorously with both the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and our partner banks as well as the Ministry of Finance.

Mutembwa said to date, COTTCO has paid $16.7 million to farmers, out of $23 million owed, adding that the company was working hard to ensure that arrears to its workers are also cleared.

She said COTTCO has not yet distributed free Pfumvudza/Intwasa cotton inputs to farmers around the country. Said Mutembwa:

We have not started the distribution of free inputs, but we have prepared as much as we can; we normally distribute after the end of October, we are also waiting for some of the inputs to arrive, so we are not too late. We are currently working on making sure that we are prepared.

Some farmers in cotton-growing areas such as Muzarabani and Gokwe have abandoned the crop due to low prices and late payment for their deliveries by COTTCO.

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