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In a daring but contested strategy, the West African state of Togo has relied heavily on the private sector to revive its struggling cotton industry.
“White gold”, as cotton is sometimes called, represents only between 1 and 4.3% of the country’s GDP, creating 500,000 jobs for a population of 8.8 million inhabitants.
Yet cotton also has enormous potential in terms of job creation, especially for the poorest and smallest producers in the marginalized north.
Seeing the success of privatization in neighboring Benin, Togo ceded a majority stake in its largest cotton producer, Nouvelle Société cotonnière du Togo (NSCT), to a Singaporean giant last December.
NSCT says it aims to produce 135,000 tonnes next year and 225,000 by 2025 – a target that many say is in high demand.
The production for the 2020-21 season was 67,000 tonnes, which is a dramatic 43% drop from 2019-2020.
Many farmers switched to corn and soybeans when the NSCT lowered the price per kilogram of raw cotton from 265 CFA francs ($ 0.48) during the 2019-2020 season to 225 CFA francs ($ 0.48 to $ 0.40) the following year.
“At least 40,000 cotton producers out of 153,000 abandoned their fields this past season,” said Koussouwe Kouroufei, president of the National Federation of Cotton Producers Associations (FNGPC).
To go. By Kun TIAN (AFP) The 2020-21 harvest suffered from “poor seed quality and bad weather in the north of the country,” said NSCT Chairman Simfeitcheou Pre.
Togo takes an envious look at its neighbor Benin, where privatization allowed cotton production to drop from 324,000 tonnes in 2015-2016 to 700,000 tonnes last year.
The transformation was designed by Beninese President Patrice Talon, a tycoon known as the “King of Cotton” before his election in 2016.
Benin is now the largest cotton producer in the region, the sector representing 12% of GDP.
Price support
Togo sold 51% of its stake in NSCT to Singapore-based agricultural conglomerate Olam International last December.
Owned by the Japanese Mitsubishi and the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek, Olam International is present in 60 countries, with a strong focus on agribusiness in Africa.
The state of Togo retained 24 percent of the shares of the NSCT and the farmers’ association 25 percent.
Under its new operating conditions, NSCT will be responsible for all cotton activities in the country, including supporting producers with fertilizer, ginning and sales.
The company said it would increase the floor price for raw cotton to 254 CFA francs ($ 0.46) per kilo to encourage production. International cotton prices have rebounded this year, peaking at 93 cents per pound (0.45 kilograms) in February, almost double its low point in 2020.
A processing plant is also under construction in a new industrial zone, Adetikope, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the capital Lomé, with a capacity to transform 5,000 tonnes of fiber by 2022 and 25,000 tonnes in over the next three years.
“We hope that the new season will offer better prospects for the whole industry,” Martin Drevon, deputy general manager in charge of operations at NSCT told AFP.
But some are worried about the long-term impact of opening the door to multinational giants. They fear a loss of sovereignty.
“If we do not move forward, in five years, all Togolese cotton will be in the hands of this group,” said Emmanuel Sogadji, president of the Togo Consumers Association (LCT).
“And it’s not just cotton. It’s the same with soybeans and other agricultural products. Even in a liberal economy, we should promote domestic investors.”
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