Source: Cottco wants its monopoly reinstated – DailyNews Live
STAFF WRITER 15 March 2018
HARARE – Cottco Holdings Limited, a Zimbabwe-based agro-industrial company
engaged in buying, processing and marketing of cotton, has called on
government to reinstate its monopoly on cotton marketing to ensure its
viability and combat side-marketing.
“De-regulation of the industry by the government was good because it
brought about competition but it also brought with it viability challenges
for us in the form of side-marketing,” Cottco managing director Pious
Manamike said in an interview with authoritative agriculture magazine
Farmers Voice. “Indeed, we are not afraid of
competition but the playing field is not even when some companies just
sprout during harvesting period and reap where they did not sow.” He said
the current challenge of side-marketing could only be addressed by
reinstating the monopoly, which Cottco used to enjoy before the turn of
the millennium.
“Everything should be situational. Nothing should be strait-jacket. A good
example is that of National Railways of Zimbabwe, you cannot have several
companies providing railway services; it is the government that should do
that hence we have that monopoly. Certain challenges can only be addressed
by a monopoly,” he said.
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