The Cotton Council of Malawi says this year’s first estimates of cotton harvest have been projected at 30,000 to 40,000 metric tons which is half of the demand on the major cotton market.

Executive Director for Cotton Council of Malawi, Cosmos Luwanda told YFM that currently the crop is doing well in the fields except some few districts which was affected by bad weather conditions.

“The crop is looking quit good and the weather situation has also been favorable so far except in few arrears where we have had floods and heavy rains for example at Makhanga in Nsanje district, there are reports that crops have been washed away,” Luwanda said.

He however said Malawi is expected to have improved harvests this year as compared to last year which means that if weighed against the 60 thousand metric tons demand, the crop is expected to fetch more money this year.

“Buyers on the market demanded that they need up to 60 thousand metric tons of cotton but we might not be able to reach that target because we are still building our production systems and last year the production was low and this year we will double the production,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, the cotton council says they have intensified efforts to improve the production of cotton in near future to meet the current demand on the market.