Our History

Cottco Holdings Limited is the holding company for The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe, also known as Cottco. Cottco is the only operating company under Cottco Holdings Company. It is the largest cotton producing company in the country, with an 80% market share. The company was privatized in 1994 and was in competition with Cargill at the time.

After the year 2000, various players came and in the year 2005, when the foreign currency challenges began, Chinese companies also joined the cotton industry. At the peak of hyper inflation 2007/8, there were 28 cotton companies in Zimbabwe although they were fly by night companies.

The company has revived its relationship with farmers so that they start to grow cotton again. The response has been positive considering that the Presidential Input Scheme is now in place. The Presidential Input Scheme was first announced by the government in 2015 with the aim to revive cotton production. The inputs package is a direct subsidy to the farmer administered by Cottco.

During the 2015/6 season, 10 800 tonnes of seed cotton were delivered by farmers to Cottco, and for the 2016/7 season 54 000 tonnes of seed cotton were delivered by farmers. The jump represents a 400% growth in cotton production. For the 2018/19 season, output was 63 000 tonnes of seed cotton. Currently, there are about six cotton companies including The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe. The major challenges for the cotton sector include side marketing , low productivity per unit area, diversion of fertilizer to other crops as well as erratic rainfall.

The company has 400 000 farmers countrywide in cotton growing areas namely Chiredzi, Chinhoyi, Gokwe, Kadoma, Mutoko, Mutare, Mt Darwin, Muzarabani, and Sanyati.