{"id":21841,"date":"2025-02-06T09:50:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T09:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?p=21841"},"modified":"2025-02-06T09:50:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T09:50:24","slug":"the-zimbabwe-cotton-sector-predicts-a-bumper-2025-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/02\/06\/the-zimbabwe-cotton-sector-predicts-a-bumper-2025-season\/","title":{"rendered":"The Zimbabwe cotton sector predicts a bumper 2025 season\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (COTTCO) has forecast a fruitful season for the 2025 Zimbabwe cotton crop, thanks to good rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rainfall has been evenly distributed January though February smack on a late planting season after poor El ni\u00f1o saturation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Changing weather necessitated farmers to plant past the usual October timing for the Lowveld and November for the Highveld areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By early February, 12% of the crop had emerged from the ground while 31% was at the two-leaf budding stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to COTTCO\u2019s CEO Rocky Mutenha in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newzimbabwe.com\/cottco-expects-bumper-harvest-during-2024-25-season\/\"><u>New Zimbabwe<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;report, &nbsp;the most advanced crop representing 7% of cultivation is past flowering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite last season\u2019s poor yields, &nbsp;the nationwide cultivated area has expanded to 200,000 hectares due to rising optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One motivating factor is the procurement of finance and inputs by COTTCO, which has &nbsp;settled 75% of seasonal dues to farmers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company paid all farmers\u2019 arrears of the 2024 season that were payable in U.S. dollars. Payment of the remaining 25%, payable in ZiG, apparently will be complete before the marketing season begins.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The marketing of the annual Zimbabwe cotton crop normally runs from May through August, soon after the April harvest. A notable recent harvest is that of April 2023 at 90,000 tonnes, which won farmers&nbsp;<a href=\"#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20price%20of%20cotton%20per%20kilogram%2Fpound,see%20today%27s%20exact%20prices%20of%20cotton%20in%20Zimbabwe\"><u>prices<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;of around&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pressreader.com\/zimbabwe\/the-herald-zimbabwe\/20230406\/282707641335901\"><u>US\u00a240 per kg<\/u><\/a>. In retrospect, the 2022 season had derailed production to 48,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 2025 season in its part could reprise 2023\u2019s receipts despite currently&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/01\/10\/world-cotton-prices-slide-only-momentary\/\"><u>low world prices<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;if the current favorable weather keeps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>COTTCO indeed concludes that if the ongoing spate of rains go on through March, they will insure a good harvest. And as the statistics below reveal, a great harvest will strengthen the place of the country\u2019s economically-important textile good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-zimbabwe-cotton-statistics\"><strong>Zimbabwe Cotton Statistics<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Cotton is an important cash crop for farmers, textile and export business in Zimbabwe, with 1.3 million people dependant on it. &nbsp;It is also a source of direct jobs for 60,000 people in textile factories, distribution and logistics. As of 2023, 75% of income from cotton-growing regions of Zimbabwe came from this \u201c<a href=\"#:~:text=For%202024%2C%2040%20000%20tonnes%20of%20cotton%20are,fibres.%20It%20leads%20to%20shorter%20and%20weaker%20fibres.\"><u>white gold<\/u><\/a>.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is Zimbabwe a major cotton-producing nation<\/strong>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zimbabwe is a top 30 world producer of cotton behind other African nations such as Mali, Benin and Tanzania. In 2023, the country averaged&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/worldpopulationreview.com\/country-rankings\/cotton-production-by-country\"><u>215,000 bales<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;or 0.2% of global production.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How has Zim cotton production&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>behaved<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;in recent years<\/strong>?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zimbabwe has been shuffling production gains and losses in the past 3 years between 2022 and 2024. In 2022, production stood at a meager 48,000 tonnes but would double to nearly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pressreader.com\/zimbabwe\/the-herald-zimbabwe\/20230406\/282707641335901\"><u>100,000 tonnes<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;in the 2023 season. &nbsp;The output would then suffer a weather blow during an El Ni\u00f1o drought in 2024 to&nbsp;<a href=\"#:~:text=For%202024%2C%2040%20000%20tonnes%20of%20cotton%20are,fibres.%20It%20leads%20to%20shorter%20and%20weaker%20fibres.\"><u>40,000 tonnes,<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;according to Sunday Mail Zimbabwe. Arguably, 2025 looks onto a great comeback similar to that of 2023, going by positive weather outlook.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Where does cotton grow in Zimbabwe<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cotton thrives in the midlands, the highveld and the lowveld regions of the country, which produce 71% of the total output. In 2022, Mashonaland West accounted for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ipad.fas.usda.gov\/cropexplorer\/cropview\/comm_chartview.aspx?ftypeid=47&amp;fattributeid=1&amp;fctypeid=19&amp;fcattributeid=10&amp;regionid=safrica&amp;cntryid=ZWE&amp;cropid=2631000&amp;nationalgraph=False&amp;sel_year=2022&amp;startrow=21\"><u>17%<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;of all production while Masvingo contributed 13%, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Other areas included Mashonaland East (13% of production), Mashonaland Central (11%) and Manicaland (9%).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (COTTCO) has forecast a fruitful season for the 2025 Zimbabwe cotton crop, thanks to good rainfall. Rainfall has been evenly distributed January though February smack on a late planting season after poor El ni\u00f1o saturation.&nbsp; Changing weather necessitated farmers to plant past the usual October timing for the Lowveld and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.3 (Yoast SEO v20.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Zimbabwe cotton sector predicts a bumper 2025 season\u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2025\/02\/06\/the-zimbabwe-cotton-sector-predicts-a-bumper-2025-season\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Zimbabwe cotton sector predicts a bumper 2025 season\u00a0 - Selina Wamucii | Food &amp; Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (COTTCO) has forecast a fruitful season for the 2025 Zimbabwe cotton crop, thanks to good rainfall. 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