Largest Cotton Farm in Tigray Brings Land Holdings to 7,400ht

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

Amanuel Asmelash

13 June 2011

The largest cotton plantation owner in Tigray Regional State, Almicom Agricultural Development, added 2,000ht to the land it holds on Thursday, June 9, 2011, to increase cotton production and ease the shortage faced by local textile factories.

Due to the shortage, the government placed a prohibition on the export of raw cotton in September 2010. In 2010, Ethiopia imported around 12tn of cotton. Cotton production stood at 21,000tn over the past 10 months, an amount the government plans to increase to 98,000tn by the end of 2014/15.

The latest addition to Almicom’s land holding is located in Hewane Wereda of Tigray Regional State’s southern zone, which is known for its underground water reserves made accessible through hand dug wells. The land was leased from the regional government on a 25-year basis at an annual cost of 100 Br for a hectare.

Almicom, a subsidiary of Kebire Enterprises, which was established in April 2001, leased 5,400ht in Kafta Humera Wereda, located around 75km from Humera Town, in the western zone of Tigray Regional State, in 2009.

The zone is close to the Kaza River, making it well suited for the irrigation project the company plans.

Out of the total, Almicom planted 3,000ht in June 2010, from which it harvested 33,000ql in October.

“We only planted on a fraction of the land because it was a trial and because we faced a shortage in cotton seeds and pesticide,” Tesfaye Belay, farm manager of Almicom, told Fortune.

Almicom, which was established in 2009 with 110 million Br in capital, supplies cotton to factories, including MAA Garment Factory, its sister company.

“MAA Garment Factory has been transitioning to include textile manufacturing,” said Fikreselassie Ambaw, general manager of the factory. “It has a spinning mill factory, a knitting factory, as well as dying and finishing facilities. The expansion helped it increase its annual exports from 500,000 dollars to nine million dollars.”

MAA, which exports around 90pc of its total annual production, is the second largest exporter of textiles and garments of the more than 70 factories nationwide.

It earned 3.4 million dollars in revenue over the past nine months, while Ayka Addis Textile & Investment Group earned 23.3 million dollars, according to the Textile Industry Development Institute (TIDI). They are followed by Almeda Textile and Adama Yarn which earned 1.9 million dollars and 1.2 million dollars, respectively, according to the institute.

The government’s GTP envisions textile and garment exports to reach one billion dollars by the end of 2014/15.

As part of its transition, MAA has been spinning and knitting cotton for the past 18 months and plans to start weaving, which improves the quality of the fabric, in two years, according to Fikreselassie.

However, the harvest yielded during Almicom’s trial period produced only an average of 11ql on a hectare, causing the factory to start looking for first class quality cotton seed varieties that can yield up to 35ql on a hectare, according to Tesfaye.

As the recently received 2,000ht of land still needs clearing, Amicom is only planting the 5,400ht in Humera this month. June, the beginning of rainy season, is the plating season for the cotton plant after which it takes about four months to ripen.

There is more than 114,000ht of arable land in Humera Wereda, but only 112,600ht have been leased for agricultural development, claimed an official at the regional land management and usage agency.

Amicom originally requested to lease a total of 9,400ht and expects to receive the remaining 2,000ht after the irrigation project in Humera come online and the factory completes its shift to textile production, according to Tesfaye.

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