Mozambique's National Prices and Wages Commission published on Wednesday the new prices of raw cotton for the present harvest, which will begin within the next few days.
The commission's decision was that companies must pay the producers a minimum price of 5,000 meticais (about 20 US cents) a kilo for first class cotton. This is an increase of 31.6 per cent, compared with last year's price of 3,800 meticais.
A kilo of second class cotton is to cost 3,500 meticais, compared with 3,000 meticais in the last harvest.
The commission took the decision during a meeting in Maputo on Tuesday to harmonise the proposals tabled by the associations of peasant producers and the buying companies, during their recent meeting in the northern province of Nampula (the country's main cotton growing region), where they failed to reach agreement.
During this meeting, chaired by deputy Agriculture Minister Joao Carrilho, according to a report in the Maputo daily "Noticias", the producers' initial proposal was that a kilo of first class cotton should cost at least 5,600 meticais, and the companies were offering 4,500 meticais.
After concessions from both sides, the producers would not accept less than 5,000 meticais, and the companies would not offer more than 4,800 meticais.
In further discussions after the Nampula meeting, the companies eventually agreed to pay 5,000 meticais, which facilitated the commission's decision.
Disputes over cotton prices between the peasants and the companies during the last few years were due to the sharp drop in the price of cotton on the world market.
However, there has been a tendency towards recovery since late last year, which allowed the buying companies to offer the peasants better than the minimum price. Late in the 2003 harvest, companies were buying raw cotton at 4,000 meticais a kilo, rather than the official price of 3,800.
Before fixing the price, the government meets with the farmers and the companies every year to hear their positions, and then makes a proposal to the prices and wages commission.
Mozambique is hoping to harvest between 70,000 and 80,000 tonnes of first class cotton in the present campaign.
Fonte: AIM
