Cotton, the 'white gold' of dryland crop production in SA

Cotton production in the North West has proved to be a viable alternative to maize and soya bean, with the profitability of cotton exceeding that of maize and soya bean despite extremely high input costs. Annelie Coleman attended a cotton information day in Schweizer-Reneke and compiled this report.

- Annelie Coleman

The producer price for dryland seed cotton in areas of the North West, such as Schweizer-Reneke, stood, at the time of going to print, at R12 000/t, compared with the maize producer price, which hovered at R3 200/t and soya bean at R8 000/t at a yield obtained under dryland conditions of 3,40t/ha, 6t/ha and 3t/ha respectively.

According to Louis Olivier, CEO of Vaalharts Cotton, the production costs for cotton in the 2022/23 season amounted to R22 620/ha, compared with R16 000/ha for maize and R10 000/ha for soya bean. In the case of cotton, it means a profit of R18 179/ha, compared with R3 200/ha for maize and R14 000/ha for soya bean.

DOLLAR PRICE

Jozeph du Plessis from Schweizer-Reneke is one of the pioneering cotton producers in North West. According to him, one of the top benefits of the South African cotton price is that it is coupled to the international NY futures dollar price.

“Because of the widespread political and infrastructural deterioration in South Africa, it is imperative that the local commercial crop farming sector considers alternative crops where the price can be based on a dollar-based futures December price of the coming season, or a spot price that can be negotiated with brokers or agents,” he said at a recent cotton information day.

He pointed out that the demand for the crop outweighs the supply by far, which adds markedly to the advantage of cotton production compared to other rotational crops such as maize and soya bean. Cotton prices do not fluctuate between export and import parity like maize and soya bean, which are produced in surplus, and cotton is thus able to be exported profitably.

DROUGHT AND HEAT