Promising year awaits SA cotton producers

A bright 2022 awaits the South African cotton industry, given increasing international prices, a weakening exchange rate, and record local prices.

This was according to Hennie Bruwer, CEO of Cotton South Africa (Cotton SA), who said the favourable weather conditions predicted for 2022 meant that an expansion of cotton production, especially dryland production, could be expected.

“The fact that cotton is marketed in US dollars is another positive which, to a large extent, balances out high production and input costs.”

According to Bruwer, the expansion potential of cotton production in North West was very promising. While expansion in the province depended on shorter-growing cultivars, production conditions there were ideal for the crop due to high watertable soils and high temperatures.

The area around Schweizer-Reneke and surrounding districts were particularly well suited to cotton production, he added.

“Cotton SA is working hard to make shorter-growing cultivars available. When producers have access to these cultivars, North West could very well become the leader in cotton production in the country.”

However, the lack of new seed technology and plant genetics would remain one of the biggest challenges for cotton producers in 2022. Another difficulty was the excessive cost of new harvesters, coupled with complicated financing terms and conditions.

High input costs were also likely to remain problematic in 2022. According to Bruwer, cotton was often planted as a so-called catch crop and was significantly overshadowed by maize and soya bean. However, high-quality cotton, such as South African cotton, was highly sought after internationally, he said.

“We normally export between 80% and 90% of the local crop to Southeast Asia. About 80% of the world’s cotton utilisation occurs in this part of the world. South Africa has been a net exporter of cotton for the past three marketing seasons, and indications are that it will remain so in 2022.”

The preliminary crop estimate for 2021/22 was between 80 000 and 90 000 bales. This would be an increase of between 3,5% and 16% compared with the roughly 77 400 lint bales produced in the 2020/21 production year.