LOME: Togo’s cotton output is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels in the upcoming season, after shrinking 43% last year due to poor weather and declining prices, the nation’s largest cotton company said on Tuesday. Togo’s cotton output was 66,000 tonnes in 2020, down 43% from the previous season. “Overall, at the national level, results have been disappointing,” Martin Drevon, deputy director of the New Cotton Company of Togo (NSCT) said during a press conference on Tuesday.

He said that the steep decline over the course of the pandemic resulted from a combination of declining prices, poor seed quality and bad weather.