THREE NEW GINNING MILLS PLANNED

Three new cotton ginning mills are planned, for the central Mozambican provinces of Manica and Sofala, and for Inhambane in the south, as part of the government’s strategy for reviving the textile sector, according to the National Director of Industry, Sidonio dos Santos.Speaking to reporters, Santos said “as part of the strategy for the textile sector, we have on the ground, in the ginning area, new investments in Beira, in Sofala province, in Guru, in Manica, and in Inhambane, where new industries will arise”.Santos did not say how much money would be invested in the ginning mills. He recognised that the major gap that Mozambique faces “is in spinning and weaving. This is the great challenge, since we know we have to add value.”He noted that exporting cotton fibre brings in five or six times more money than exporting the equivalent amount of raw cotton. Santos stressed that the government strategy for textile covered everything from growing cotton in the fields, through ginning, spinning and weaving, to the manufacture of clothing.The idea, he added, is to achieve “vertical integration” of the cotton, textile and clothing sectors, based on increasing cotton production, improving the business and market environment, and ensuring supplies of electricity to the industries. Only in this way would it be possible to attract investors.In the 1970s, Mozambique had a thriving textile industry, but in the 1980s and 1990s most of the large, labour intensive textile factories closed down, throwing many thousands of workers into unemployment.The government’s strategy to revive the textile sector envisages bringing existing factories back into production, establishing specialized industries, and creating 100,000 jobs by 2012.Data from the Cotton Institute of Mozambique indicate that currently there are 18 functioning ginning mills in the country. Another nine ginning mills were destroyed during the war of destabilisation or are out of order.