By Frank Jomo
Bloomberg
International cotton buyers in Malawi who buy lint below the government’s set price of 75 Malawi kwacha (53 cents) a kilogram (2.2 pounds) will be deported, President Bingu wa Mutharika said.
“I will not allow anyone to steal from Malawian cotton farmers,” Mutharika told reporters late yesterday in the commercial capital of Blantyre on his return from the Non-Aligned Movement’s summit in Egypt.
On June 15, Malawi’s Cotton Development Association said cotton buyers will offer 36 kwacha per kilogram for the crop because of the global recession that has resulted in cotton lint prices tumbling on international markets. The Agriculture Ministry responded the next day by saying it might deport buyers who don’t pay the full price.
The southern African nation’s government sets minimum prices for cotton, corn and tobacco to counter what it terms “exploitation by buyers.”
Last year, cotton output in Malawi increased 25 percent to 77,000 metric tons.