Lesotho Lawmakers Back End to Country’s Wool, Mohair Monopoly
Lesotho Lawmakers Back End to Country’s Wool, Mohair Monopoly
Lesotho lawmakers have recommended repealing regulations that effectively granted a Chinese businessman a monopoly on the mountain kingdom’s wool and mohair industry.
A report by a parliamentary committee said farmers weren’t consulted prior to the enactment of the rules that gave Guohui Shi and his Lesotho Wool Centre the right to conduct all sales of the fibers produced by the country’s estimated estimated 48,000 producers. Farmers should be free to sell their produce wherever they choose, it said.
The report also recommended setting up an independent body to reform and regulate the wool and mohair industry and that anyone found to have unfairly benefited from sales in the 2017-19 seasons be prosecuted.
The sector was thrown into turmoil when the Lesotho Wool Centre was unable to pay for product it bought, leaving most farmers without earnings for more than a year. About 75% of the population lives in rural areas and relies on wool and mohair for income. They are also are the kingdom’s main exports.
Mohair sales resumed earlier this month, conducted by locally-owned Maluti Wool and Mohair Centre when the monopoly was eased. But the government is still insisting that wool and mohair be auctioned locally rather than being sold in South Africa, which had been the practice for decades.
One in eight people in Lesotho, a country with a population of 2 million, depend on the industry.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mathabiso Ralengau in Johannesburg at mralengau@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gordon Bell at gbell16@bloomberg.net, Hilton Shone, Antony Sguazzin
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