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Cotton prices- Government fails to bread impasse |
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2004-7-14
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All efforts to break the impasse over prices between disgruntled cotton farmers and buyer failed to break, according to sources.
It lead to siege of the office of Agriculture Minister Joseph Made''s by the angry farmers, representative farmer organisations, cotton buyers, and the National Cotton Council on Wednesday last, demanding a review of the cotton price. A lengthy meeting with him in a bid to break the deadlock failed yet again.
With no solution in sight as parties continue to disagree, the situation would go the ‘Ugandan way’ according to National Cotton Council chairman Phineus Chingono, where the industry collapsed because of poor quality crops and lack of financial support.
He said the industry was in urgent need of a regulatory body, which could monitor and determine issue such as prices.
MDC Agriculture secretary Renson Gasela said it was imperative that an agreement be reached to save the industry from collapse.
"The price offered by buyers is on the downside, while they cannot sell the cotton at a loss," Gasela said.
The cotton farmers recently declared that they would not sell their produce following the suspension of the reviewing of the producer price of seed cotton from $1800/kg to at least $3000/kg.
Cottco Corporate Communications executive, Maria Pangidzwa, said on a recent tour of Cottco''s subsidiary, Scottco (Pvt) Ltd, the farmers wanted an increase to cover up for their inefficiency.
"These farmers were reneging on the deal to sell their bales to us, despite the company having provided them with all necessary inputs," added Maria Pangidzwa. |
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