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Masimba Gomo Harare Bureau
Members of the Cotton Ginners Association (CGA) are mulling disbanding the association over lack of viability and high operational costs, an official said yesterday.Founded eight years ago, CGA is an association that represents and champions the interests of cotton merchants in Zimbabwe and currently have 15 members. Some members are Cottco, Cargill, CottZim, Romsadal, SinoZim, Insing and Alliance.

A member of CGA who declined to be named said over 10 associates were for the closure of the organisation.

“CGA might be shutting down; its members are divided with the majority for the closure. We have been facing challenges paying wages as well as salaries and to date we have not paid June wages for our clerks who were working for various buying points countrywide,” said the member.

“Most members have not been paying subscription fees and these are pushing for the demise of the association. Only four members out of the 15 want the organisation to continue operating.”

The member said the last meeting was held last week Friday.

“Other CGA members may deny this, but the truth is we can’t sustain the organisation anymore because of high operational costs and low price of cotton lint on the international market.

“We may try to keep CGA intact but it’s on the verge of collapsing. The final meeting will be held this month,” said the source.

Zimbabwe’s cotton sector has been facing a plethora of challenges over the years. Some of the challenges include poor yield of less than 1,000 kilogrammes per hectare, low prices on the international market and poor rainfall distribution patterns.

This has resulted in local production declining to 143 million kilogrammes of the commodity in 2013 marketing season compared to 350 million in 2012.

The 2013 crop was worth about $71,5 million compared to $129,5 million from the 2012 crop. The average price of the product was 50 cents per kilogramme in 2013 and 37 cents per same unit in 2012.