Zimbabwe looks to Benin to boost cotton sector

The Government is working to improve relations with cotton farmers to increase production and enhance the cotton value chain, which is vital for accelerated rural industrialisation.

This was said by Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Deputy Minister Vangelis Haritatos, who is currently leading a high-level delegation to Benin.

The delegation has already visited Benin’s Glo-Djigbe Industrial Zone (GDIZ), a hallmark of agro-industrial success built through robust Government backing and private sector collaboration to unlock Zimbabwe’s agro-export potential.

He said the ministry was trying to learn from farmers in the West African country to see what their Government was doing well so that they could copy and implement that back home.

“We are here trying to learn from the farmer, discussing what the Government is doing with farmers so that we can also share ideas and see what Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (Cottco) can do to improve relations with farmers, whether it is agronomy, input supply, whatever we can find out,” said Deputy Minister Haritatos.

“We are now looking at how they are pushing that into industry itself, the value addition, lint, and the textile industry.

“The textile industry is very strong, we had some great interactions where we have seen companies like Nike, Adidas, we have also seen Polo, which is a USA-based company.

“They have a keen interest in Benin and this is something we want to mimic in Zimbabwe because we have a very strong cotton sector, which in our opinion is a sleeping giant.”

Zimbabwe is working on several initiatives to develop its cotton value chain.

The flagship venture, the Gokwe Cotton Seed Processing Project, integrates cotton, sunflower, and soya bean value chains and has a capacity of 500 tonnes per day, processing benchmark.

This benchmarking mission is pivotal for extracting critical insights into operational excellence, stakeholder synergy, and industrial scalability.

By engaging GDIZ officials and Benin’s Government ministries, Zimbabwe positions itself to replicate proven models, minimise risks, and fast-track agro-industrial transformation.

The visit not only refines Zimbabwe’s domestic strategy but also fosters international co-operation pathways essential to advancing Zimbabwe’s export agriculture on food security initiative (EAFSI) objectives with precision and purpose.

“We are trying to see how we can increase production and strengthen the value chain so that we can also see how we can contribute positively,” said Deputy Minister Haritatos.

He said the cotton value chain has 10 to 15 fold benefits from raw cotton, which will promote rural industrialisation.

“It’s a massive opportunity for us to industrialise our rural areas and feed into Vision 2030, the vision of our President of uplifting the lives of each and every Zimbabwean,” said the Deputy Minister.

“While on our visit, we saw what I thought was also President Mnangagwa’s vision of supporting and empowering the youth.

“The President of Benin also has a fantastic initiative, and we visited two factories that employed 500 youths each, and this is what we see that through the textile industry we can now push this in our youths in rural areas so that we can keep them busy.”

The deputy minister said cotton had by-products that can be used to produce other products, including stock feed, soap production, and others.

He also said revitalising the cotton value addition would increase exports to the region and internationally, saying that they are keen to get into deals with big textile companies, like what Benin is doing to improve exports to different countries.

“We believe that our cotton quality is fantastic, through our agronomy, we can continue to improve the quality so that we can take advantage of that initiative,” said Deputy Minister Haritatos.

The cotton value chain is one of the 10 priority value chains under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

NDS prioritises quick-win value chains, namely agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, bus and truck assembly, iron and steel, engineering, and plastic waste.

Under the agro value chains, focus is on soya bean, fertilisers, cotton, sugar cane, dairy sector, and leather, leveraging on existing, but creating additional and new capacity. -herald