Cotton authority in push for local raw materials
Post Date: 26 Dec 2013 Viewed: 419
THE COTTON Development Authority said yesterday it is seeking to revive the under-performing sector through various incentives and preferential treatment in public procurement.
The authority said it has identified high cost of inputs and manufacturing, use of obsolete technology, high cost of capital, poor and unpredictable prices as well as threat from cheap imports as the major teething challenges facing the industry.
Acting chief executive Antony Muriithi said at a press briefing in Nairobi the parastatal was however in discussions with parent ministry of Agriculture, Treasury and Industrialisation with a view to addressing the challenges.
He said the authority was lobbying to have clothing contracts for the disciplined forces, public hospitals and schools procured locally. "The cotton we have in the country is of the desirable quality you will get anywhere else," Muriithi said.
A cotton classification facility, he said, has been introduced to test quality attributes of the locally produced cotton lint including trash levels, fibre length and strength, colour grade and maturity.
The authority, is however, yet to establish the exact local demand and supply levels of the fibre, a process it said will be completed by end of first quarter, 2014. "We are also developing a monitoring tool for the trend in the industry," the CEO added.
CODA is further proposing establishment of a price stabilisation or a revolving fund for the industry to be funded from a share of the 25 per cent duty on imported clothes.
Muriithi said the fund will be important in financing infrastructural projects for the industry which up to mid 1980s was a leading manufacturing activity in the country. It also wants investors in the industry to be given a raft of incentives including rebates.
The country has 22 ginning factories but only eight are operational at a low capacity of between 17 and 31 per cent. In 2012, cotton production was at 13,877 metric tonnes up from recent record output of 24,993 metric tonnes in 2007.