Ivory Coast is forecast to produce 216,000 tonnes of cotton in 2011-2012, up from around 175,000 tonnes the previous season, the executive secretary of the cotton ginners association said on Wednesday. Ivory Coast, the world biggest cocoa producer, was also one of the West African region's major cotton exporters, with an annual output of about 400,000 tonnes, before a 2002-2003 civil war halved production.
"We expect to produce about 216,000 tonnes of cotton for the 2011-2012 campaign. We arrived at this estimate yesterday after a meeting with various industry players," Christophe N'Dry, told Reuters in a phone interview. "For the previous campaign, we see total production at about 175,000 tonnes of cotton," N'Dry said. He added the figure was well below the forecast 215,000 tonnes and partly blamed the country's political crisis, which brought economic activity to a near standstill.
Exports dropped by 66 percent year-on-year to 6,833 tonnes in January and February following a post-election conflict and an export embargo imposed by Western powers seeking to squeeze former president Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo was finally ousted by President Alassane Ouattara's forces last month. Ivory Coast is gradually easing back to normal following the five-month conflict, which left over 3,000 people dead and about a million displaced.
The new cotton season will start at the end of May, and the farmgate price will be above 210 CFA francs ($0.460) per kg of cotton, which would attract many farmers, N'Dry said, adding they were expecting the government to subsidise input costs. "Production costs have become very expensive. We hope the government give grants to help farmers," he said.
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