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 then Finance Minister Patrick
Chinamasa during the 2015 National Budget 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.