By Rungano Dzikira

Government has said a co-ordinated approach to address challenges faced by players in the cotton and textile sector can help improve the sector’s contribution to national exports.

In line with Government’s drive to boost agricultural exports receipts, Finance Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube said Government was putting together a production enablers plan for the cotton sector.

“When the production enablers are available but the provision of some of these is irregular, unreliable, costly and risky, cause the sector to be pricey, uncompetitive both in the domestic and foreign markets.

“As such Government is working on a plan for the provision of key enablers such as water, energy and transport which form significant proportions of the sector’s cost drives, at concessionary rates for the recovery of the sector,” he said.

This recovery plan follows a weak performance by the sector in the exports figures from January to August this year.

“Although the country has recorded an increase in total exports, the current trade performance could have been better if sectors such as agriculture, clothing and textile, and arts and crafts were not affected by COVID-19,” he added.

The largest drop was in the clothing and textile sector, which registered a 58 percent decline from US$42 million between January-August 2019 to US$17 million during the same period this year.

Cotton went down from US$23 million in 2019 to US$6.7 million and footwear from US$2.5 million to US$0.2 million.

Supporting recovery and growth, Government also recently approved a Horticulture Recovery and Growth Plan which is expected to boost the private sector’s investment into the horticulture sector.