Zambia’s minister for agriculture Emmanuel Chenda says the PF government will not dictate the price of cotton because it runs a liberalised economy despite complaints that the commodity is selling more than half the price lower than its neigbours Zimbabwe.
Small scale farmers in Zambia’s Eastern province recently burnt their cotton out of anger after the government failed to help improve the price of cotton which is pegged at K1, 600 per kg.
A Catholic priest in Zambia’s cotton belt – Lundazi – Fr Viteur Banyangandora has since been deported without recourse for a sermon that touched on the suffering of cotton farmers who were unable to sell their commodity due to the poor PF agricultural polices.
Chenda has said the PF government has no policy to fix prices of agricultural commodities including cotton.
He said price of any commodity is determined based on market forces and there is no government interference in this regard.
Responding to an urge by Zambia National Farmers Union president Jervis Zimba that the government should reconsider cotton prices for small farmers,
Chenda said the government leaves it to market forces to determine the prices.
Zimba’s call followed Zimbabwe’s move of setting cotton price at K 3,696 per kg, while the same quality cotton was traded at K 1,600 per kg in Zambia.
In his plea, Mr. Zimba said that there are international firms that purchase cotton both from Zambia and Zimbabwe and hence it would be unjust that local farmers fetch even below half the prices than what farmers in Zimbabwe would get for same quality produce.