SA's cotton value chain could be losing about R20.4 billion in opportunity cost, claims agtech CEO
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South Africa's cotton production has grown by almost 800% since 2013.
The country does not have the spinning capacity to convert the lint into yarn.
This meant 84% of last year's lint cotton had to be exported.
Most of South Africa's lint cotton (about 84%) is exported for processing and then the final product is imported again, leading to an estimated opportunity loss for the local industry of about R20.4 billion along the beneficiation value chain.
This is according to Thomas Robbertse, CEO of agtech company IQ Logistica (IQL), who based his research on the 2018/19 production year's output of 51 000 tonnes of lint cotton. Agtech is a term for the use of new digital technologies to measure efficiency along agricultural value chains.