Africa-Press – Mozambique. Cotton exports, Mozambique’s main cash crop, generated US$120.9 million over the past five years, but fell by more than half in 2024, according to official data.
According to a balance of payments report from the Bank of Mozambique, exports fell to US$14.2 million in 2024, the lowest annual figure in at least five years.
According to data provided to Lusa in 2024 by Francisco Ferreira dos Santos, president of the Mozambique Cotton Association (AAM), cotton in Mozambique represented an annual average of US$30 to US$50 million in exports over the previous ten years, making it a vital crop. “It has an enormous value chain. […] It is an almost sacred crop, with catalytic effects on the economy and demographics,” the AAM president comments.
Mozambique represents less than 0.5% of global cotton production, in a market led by countries such as the United States, China, and India.
Cotton production in Mozambique grew 2% in 2024 compared to the previous year, reaching 24,000 tons, but missed the targets set for the sector, according to budget execution data from the Ministry of Finance.
Cotton production, one of the country’s staple crops, fell short of the projected 40,000 tons, meeting only 60% of the target, although above the 23,516 tons achieved in 2023.
Mozambique’s cotton production area grew from 95,097 hectares in 2023 to 96,523 hectares last year.
The Mozambican state will stop subsidizing cotton sales in the current agricultural campaign due to a shortage of funds, the Ministry of Agriculture announced in May after the meeting to set the 2025 reference prices.
“The important thing is that an agreement was reached,” said the Minister of Agriculture, Environment, and Fisheries, Roberto Albino, quoted in a statement from that ministry regarding the consensus approval of the minimum reference prices with the National Cotton Producers Forum and the AAM.
The new price list, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, sets the price at 22 meticais (€0.30) per kilogram for top-quality cotton from the 2024/2025 agricultural season and at 15.5 meticais (€0.21) for second-quality cotton.
In 2024, the Mozambican government announced that it would subsidize cotton purchases at five meticais (€0.07) per kilogram to stabilize prices, benefiting 600,000 farmers and encouraging a “culture of trust.”
The lack of rain in some regions of the country due to the El Niño weather phenomenon, the abandonment of production in Cabo Delgado province, and above all, the excess production on the market, all led to a downward price in 2024, leading the government, for the second consecutive year, to establish a subsidy to maintain producers’ income.
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