How can Africa compete in the global cotton-based market currently dominated by Asia, Europe and America? Can textiles made in Africa with distinctive continental flavouring find their own niche in the billion-dollar industry? Neil Ford has been finding out.

T he cotton sector is one of Africa’s most important links to the global economy. Production from Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali has long been shipped to spinning mills in Bangladesh, garment factories in Asia, and European and North American fashion houses. Yet the continent remains far more significant as a producer and exporter of raw fibre than as a manufacturer of the clothes that ultimately give cotton most of its value. This imbalance is finally now attracting much greater attention.

Africa has the land, labour, agricultural expertise and growing consumer markets needed to expand cotton production and develop a larger textile and apparel industry.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) provides the framework for a single continental market of 1.4bn people and growing, while global fashion companies are increasingly looking to diversify their sourcing beyond established Asian manufacturing centres. The opportunities are enormous but turning them into reality is far from straightforward.

The global cotton market is dominated by a relatively small group of producers and buyers. The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) forecasts global cotton production of about 26mt of lint in the 2025-26 season, of which 9.7mt will be traded internationally.

China, India, Brazil, the US and Pakistan are among the industry’s most influential national players, combining large-scale production with substantial processing capacity. Africa’s collective output is much smaller, but its role in global trade is significant because many of its major cotton-producing countries export most of the lint they produce rather than processing it domestically.

The continent’s leading producers are in West and Central Africa. According to US Department of Agriculture projections for 2025-26, Mali and Benin are neck-and-neck as Africa’s leading cotton producers, each with expected output of about 261,000t of lint. Cameroon is forecast to produce 142,000t, with Burkina Faso at roughly 133,000t and Côte d’Ivoire at 121,000t.

Other significant producers include Tanzania, Nigeria, Egypt and Zimbabwe, although their output is considerably below that of the leading West African producers. These figures may differ from national government statistics, which often refer to seed cotton, the raw crop before processing, rather than lint production volumes.

Egypt occupies a particularly important position because of the excellent international reputation of its long-staple cotton, while Ethiopia has ambitions to expand both cotton production and textile manufacturing. The precise rankings change from one season to another because cotton output is highly sensitive to rainfall, pests and the availability of inputs.

Rather than treating Africa as a single cotton market, it is more useful to see it as a collection of regional production systems. Cotton is not only important in terms of generating foreign exchange export revenues. It also provides rural employment and government revenue, while supporting a supply chain encompassing seed and fertiliser producers, logistics companies, ginners, traders and financial institutions.

In 2003, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali formed the Cotton-4 coalition to campaign for a fairer global trading environment and oppose the subsidies given to cotton farmers in wealthy nations. Yet Africa’s position remains particularly weak because much of its cotton leaves the continent before it has passed through the most valuable stages of the supply chain.

Farmers grow and harvest the fibre, companies gin it, and exporters ship it overseas. The cotton may then be spun into yarn, woven or knitted into fabric, dyed, cut and sewn into garments before reaching retailers. The greatest concentration of these activities remains in Asia, where textile and garment manufacturers benefit from established industrial clusters, reliable infrastructure and economies of scale.

The role of African producers is largely restricted to the first part of this equation, while capturing relatively little of the value created in the latter stages. African producers could increase yields, improve seed quality and strengthen support for farmers, but much greater gains are likely to come from building supply chains.

Cotton cultivation is overwhelmingly driven by millions of local smallholder farmers working on small family plots rather than massive corporate plantations.

However, the industry in most of West Africa is organised by powerful national cotton companies, although their roles vary from country to country. Mali’s Compagnie Malienne pour le Developpement des Textiles (CMDT) plays a central role across the sector, while Burkina Faso’s Sofitex is a major player in cotton production and ginning.

In more liberalised African markets, international commodity traders such as Olam Agri are among the companies active in cotton supply chains. UK-based Plexus Cotton is another significant private-sector player in African cotton, with activities spanning cotton sourcing, ginning and trading in parts of eastern and southern Africa.

Severe global competition

A particularly clear case study of both the opportunities and challenges on offer is provided by Benin. The country exported $500.9m of uncombed cotton in 2024, according to World Bank data, of which $480.4m was exported to Bangladesh, one of the world’s biggest garment producers.

To reduce this dependence on the export of raw cotton, the government of Benin is attempting to promote the creation of a domestic ‘farm-to-fashion’ value chain, including at the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ – pictured below ), which it launched alongside Arise IIP in 2020. ( See story on page 90.) The big test will be whether such facilities can attract international buyers and remain competitive against established Asian manufacturing centres.

The logic is straightforward. A cotton farmer earns money by selling raw fibre, but a finished garment embodies many additional stages of economic activity. Spinning, weaving and knitting require machinery and skilled technicians. Dyeing and finishing require chemicals, water management and quality control, while designers, pattern makers, cutters and sewing-machine operators are all involved in garment production. Packaging, branding, transport and retail create still more jobs.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle is that textile production is highly competitive and Africa must compete with countries that have spent decades building industrial ecosystems, such as Bangladesh, China, India, Vietnam, Pakistan and Turkey. The continent therefore needs reliable power supplies, competitive finance and skilled labour to go alongside the cotton cultivation and, in some cases, modern ports that it already possesses.

Distinctively African

There is also an opportunity for Africa to build more distinctive fashion economies, rather than more low-cost manufacturing centres. African designers are already influencing international fashion, while local brands are tapping into traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design. If these creative industries can be connected to domestic cotton production and textile manufacturing, the continent could capture value at both ends of the chain.

However, there is another trend that could support the development of African cotton supply chains. Consumers and brands face increasing pressure to understand where fibres originate, how garments are produced and what environmental and social impacts are associated with manufacturing. African cotton could benefit from this shift if producers can demonstrate credible traceability and sustainability.

Focusing on intra-African supply chains would support Africa’s growing fashion sector, including in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. The continent has a large and growing community of designers, artisans and independent clothing brands, many of which draw on local textiles, patterns and cultural traditions. Designers provide demand for distinctive fabrics and finished products, while manufacturers can give designers access to reliable local production.

A country with its own spinning, weaving and garment industries has greater opportunities to diversify its customer bases. It can sell yarn to one market, fabric to another and finished garments to a third. That flexibility does not eliminate commodity-price risk, but it can reduce dependence on a single export channel.

The growth potential is considerable, but progress should be measured in terms of value captured rather than tonnes harvested. Africa could increase its share of global cotton production. Still, the larger economic prize would come from increasing the proportion of African cotton that is spun, woven, dyed and manufactured within the continent. Given the market’s 26mt-per-year scale, Africa does not need to dominate it to benefit from it.

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