The strong investment in new technologies at Sociedade Algodoeira do Niassa has boosted production levels. In the current agricultural season alone, production could triple, reaching a "historic high" of 17,000 tons of cotton.
About 17 thousand tons of cotton is what Sociedade Algodoeira do Niassa, a company that belongs to João Ferreira do Santos Group and is located in Niassa province, northern Mozambique, expects to produce in the current season. MZNews spoke with Manuel Delgado, the company's general manager and one of the people responsible for production in the province, who said the following about this increase: "I think this will be a historical fact. It is the first time that Niassa province produces more cotton in Mozambique". Results that did not come by chance!
There was a serious investment over the years in new technologies (use of drones in the production fields) whose goal was really to increase the level of production, and to have better control of what is produced.
"Basically all these statistics, all this information system allows us to be much more confident in the financial part and in the sales part. It also allows us to know who is the producer that produces better, what is the best yield" (...). And, "so, the faster and sooner you can get what you are going to have (in this case volume) the better.
This software, says Delgado, "allows us to have a guarantee of the data in a reliable way, something that nobody else has. Going into numbers, the official says that the group is investing about 450 million meticais, (7 million dollars) in the field.
The investment is also the result of a public-private partnership. "The cotton we produce is of good quality and we have several national and international certifications," he says.
Besides the domestic market, Delgado says that the JFS group's cotton is sold to countries such as India, Pakistan, China, Portugal, Germany, Japan, Vietnam, among other markets. The results could be better if the pandemic caused by Covid-19 did not exist. From a logistical standpoint, Delgado says, "Covid 19 has created many problems for us and is still creating them. To have an idea, there are no containers. The boats come and go quickly. They can't waste time. The price of containers has almost tripled, which makes us less money," he explains. Even in the face of this scenario, Delgado is optimistic about sales.
"We are managing to fight and for sure we will be able to sell everything and honor our commitments to the producers. Until according to him, the price in the market has been registering great improvements. "Now with the acceleration of the vaccine people are starting to demand cotton again, and the price is going up," he concludes.
It should be noted that Niassa Cotton Societyis the oldest company and one of the references in the cotton sector in Mozambique. Agricultural production, industrial processing and export of cotton have been the focus of its activities for almost a century. The cotton development concession includes 8 districts (Cuamba, Mecanhelas, Metarica, Nipepe, Maúa, Marrupa Mecula and Mandimba).
With an area from grant cotton mill of 1 million of hectares, the company works at partnership with more of 40,000 producers from half rural, the who provides training technique and factors from production on a microcredit fully bonus. In parallel, is involved on production and marketing from products food, like corn and soy. It was a first company cotton, and the first from Niassa a have o seal from certification "Made in Mozambique.