Maputo, Mozambique, 28 Oct – Mozambique plans to start exporting cotton fibre once gain after a halt of several years and the first lot for export will be made up of 1,700 tons of cotton fibre processed by China Africa Cotton, Mozambican daily newspaper Notícias reported.

The company, which owns an industrial unit that has been operating since the beginning of this year in the city of Beira, has acquired more than 5,500 tons of raw cotton from producers grown in the 2010/2011 season, manager Florindo Vicente da Cruz Coimbra told the newspaper, adding that this first lot would be sold to Chinese companies.

The factory has a capacity to process 45,000 tons of raw cotton per year and Cruz Coimbra said that this first lot to be exported was the start of paying down the capital invested in the factory and that it was happening at a particularly good time, at which a ton of cotton fibre is being sold for a price of between US$2,000 and US$4,000.

Cruz Coimbra also said that, with the help of the government to get rural workers to increase cotton cropping areas to feed the industry, exports of the product could be quite high, which would be good for everyone involved.

Notícias noted that the first initiative of the Chinese investors that own China Africa Cotton was to establish, of their own accord, a price of 16 and 12 meticals for each kilo of raw first and second grade cotton, as compared to the officially set prices of 15 and 11.5 meticals. (macauhub)