Mnangagwa says government is taking back Cottco

The government is working on taking back the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe to revitalise the cotton industry which has seen production plummet from 350 000 tonnes in 2012 to an estimated 90 000 last year, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa said.

“We are finalising modalities to take back Cottco and very soon we will announce the takeover of the company,” Mnangagwa said in Kwekwe.

According to The Herald, Mnangagwa said it was saddening to note that only 35 percent of cotton produced in the country was used locally while 65 percent was being exported in its raw state.

“We want local companies to process the cotton so that the country can derive maximum benefits from growing cotton,” Mnangagwa said.

Cottco was started as the Cotton Marketing Board in 1969 and was privatised in 1994 under the International Monetary Fund inspired Economic Structural Adjustment Programme.

The company was listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in 1997 and made a loss of $30.2 million in the financial year that ended in March. It made a profit of $14.9 million the previous year.

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