Ivory Coast 2024/25 cotton output to rise 6 percent

ABIDJAN, July 25 (Reuters) – Ivory Coast’s cotton output for the 2024-2025 season is set to rise by 6 percent to 367,000 metric tons, from 347,922 tons the previous year, Agriculture Minister Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani said on Thursday.

“For the 2024/25 campaign, projections are for a production of 367,000 tons,” Adjoumani told a press conference.

He also said the farmgate price will remain unchanged for the 2024/25 season, at 310 CFA franc ($0.55) per kg for first choice or premium quality cotton and 285 CFA franc per kg for second choice cotton.

Adjoumani said the cotton yield for the season will be at one ton per hectare.

Sowing started in late May and harvesting will start from December, a cotton-growers association told Reuters.

Jassid parasites ravaged the West African country’s cotton output during the 2022/23 season, when the output fell to 236,186 tons.

Ivory Coast, which is also the world’s top cocoa producer, was among Africa’s leading cotton exporters before civil war broke out in 2002.

Its cotton sector has been recovering for the past decade after years of political turmoil caused production to plummet. ($1 = 601.7500 CFA francs) (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Portia Crowe and Sandra Maler)

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