COTTON PRODUCTION The value chain round table is essential for the development of cotton industry

COTTON production in South Africa extends back over 300 years, with the first plantings beginning in the Western Cape, followed by KwaZulu-Natal approximately 156 years later, and was substantially driven by American demand until the 1870s.

- BHEKANI ZONDO AND KAYALETHU SOTSHA.

Cotton production then spread to Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the North West, and Northern Cape provinces. Cotton was classified as an agricultural crop 249 years after its first planting, in 1939.

Cotton is thought to tolerate warmer temperatures better than other crops, despite its general vulnerability to other effects of climate change.

Cotton has the added benefit of providing a larger income stream in the form of numerous byproducts.

Cotton seed, for example, is processed into both seed and lint. The seed could be further processed in several phases to produce final products such as replanted seed, plastic, writing materials, filters, bank notes, sausage casings, flour, feed, fertilizer, salad and cooking oils, explosives, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, among others.

On the other hand, lint is processed into clothing, tyre linings, bags, ropes, sheets, towels, and other items. In many circumstances, waste material from each processing stage is converted into a byproduct that can be used in other stages. Consequently, this serves as a demand buffer for cotton. The cotton industry was adversely affected by the market liberalisation.

The liberalization of South African agriculture exposed the sector to global market forces, and the cotton industry was severely hit, with active spinning factories decreasing from twenty (20) to four (4), owing primarily to low-cost imports of manufactured goods from China.

Cotton plantings increased by 41% between the 1984/85 and 1999/00 marketing years, from 99,262 to 139,911 hectares.

This period is distinguished by a consistent increase, peaking at 208,360 hectares in the 1989/90 marketing year. However, the area planted has decreased by 87% between the 1999/00 and 2023/24 marketing years, never reaching six figures during this time and dropping as low as 9,011 hectares in the 2010/11 marketing year.