The Agriculture and Irrigation Authority affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) has set the purchase price for the cotton crop from farmers for the current season at $600 per ton, which is lower than the price set by AANES last year.

The Authority explained in a statement today, Monday, September 30, that the General Cotton Corporation held a series of coordination meetings alongside the local farmers’ unions, and set the purchase price at $470 per ton, adding a profit margin for farmers to make the final price $600 per ton.

According to the statement, the crop will start being received from October 1, with three main centers designated for the collection in the provinces of Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, and al-Hasakah.

After a catastrophic season

AANES reduced the purchase price from last year’s rate, which worried cotton farmers, according to their statements to Enab Baladi.

In a report prepared by Enab Baladi in mid-September, several cotton farmers in al-Hasakah expressed their concerns about not having a crop price that would cover their incurred costs, after they put in a lot of effort and time, with harvesting starting in some lands. They clarified that the 2023 season was “catastrophic,” as AANES had set the price of a ton of unprocessed cotton at $800 without announcing the purchase of the crop from farmers, while allowing its export outside those lands.

Most of the cotton-cultivated areas in the province are under the control of the Autonomous Administration, which promised to buy cotton for the current season. “The final purchase price will be calculated after adding an appropriate profit margin for the farmer,” according to a previous statement by the co-chair of the Cotton Corporation, Walaa al-Mohammed, to the North Press website close to AANES.

She stated that cotton cultivation areas reached 425,000 dunams (42,500 hectares) in the three areas of al-Hasakah, Raqqa, and Deir Ezzor, according to Cotton Corporation records, with expectations of receiving between 75,000 and 100,000 tons of cotton at the three specified centers in al-Hasakah, Raqqa, and Deir Ezzor.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Directorate in al-Hasakah affiliated with the Syrian regime reported that cotton areas this season amounted to 4,775 hectares out of the total planned area by the sub-agriculture committee, which is 5,450 hectares.

The 2023 season was “catastrophic” for farmers because the decision to set the cotton price without buying it, according to farmers, was the “final blow” that crushed their crop after incurring costs from fuel prices, raised by the AANES in mid-September 2023, expensive fertilizers, high operating costs, and crop diseases.