It was to be an exceptional campaign, both for the volumes and for the revenue generated. But the closure of borders decided by ECOWAS prevents the export of raw cotton.
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It may come as a surprise in the current very tense security context, but Mali is expecting record cotton production. The jihadist threat had no impact in the fields. It is true that the production area is concentrated around Sikasso, in the south of the country, a region less affected by terrorism. And Sikasso provides two-thirds of national cotton production. For this campaign, the country will again become the largest producer in Africa, ahead of Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
Last season, the vast majority of cotton growers turned away from cotton in favor of millet, corn or soybeans because the tariff fixed in advance was too low in their eyes. The Malian Company for the Development of Textiles (CMDT), a public company and the only one on the market, buys raw cotton from producers at the rate imposed by the State. It is she who takes care of deseeding the fruit to recover the fiber, and above all of exporting the raw cotton.
For this campaign, the purchase price was set at 280 CFA francs per kilo (0.42 euros). Unheard of it seems, which prompted farmers to sow 795,000 hectares of cotton, against 160,000 last year. Favorable weather conditions did the rest, and the profession expects record production of 820,000 tonnes.
There remains the political context. The sanctions of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) against the military power of Bamako come to tarnish a campaign which was announced under the best auspices. Because the closure of borders provided for in the sanctions blocks the export of bullets and Mali exports 98% of its production.
According to AFP, for the time being, only a third of the harvest of this campaign has already been exported before the sanctions fall. What will happen to the rest? The storage of this production will inevitably cause the prices of the next season to fall and threaten the finances of the CMDT.
Cotton is a vital economic sector for Mali, contributing 15% of GDP. But the country has never succeeded in setting up a sector, so many obstacles are there, franceinfo Africa already recalled in 2019 at the end of an excellent cotton campaign.