KULOB, July 16, Asia-Plus — Cotton-growing farms in the Vose district have broken futures contracts the Kulob cotton-ginning factory Pakhtai Kulob, the Vose district head Allamurod Taghoymurodov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“This move is natural because Pakhtai Kulob has failed to fulfill its obligations on the contracts; moreover, low cotton prices set by the cotton ginning-factory, which has acted as futures company, hurt the farmers” Taghoymurodov said.
According to him, Pakhtai Kulob has promised to pay cotton farmers $450 for cotton from one hectare (in all, they concluded a contract for 500 hectares), while the price of cotton from one hectare across the country now averages $650. “This has put the Vose cotton farmers at a disadvantage,” Taghoymurodov said.
The Vose head added that Pakhtai Kulob had also failed to fulfill its obligations on delivery of fertilizers to the cotton-growing farms.
Other futures companies are also operating in Vose. “Thus, Credit-Invest now funds production of cotton on 1,400 hectares, while earlier, they had promised to finance production of cotton on 3,000 hectares,” said the Vose head, “On the remaining 9,000 hectares, cotton farmers are working without futures companies; some of them have taken loans from AgroInvestBonk, while others from AmonatBonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank),” Taghoymurodov said.
