At meeting in Douala: African Cotton stakeholders seek remedies to sector's crises.

The meeting brought together cotton company leaders from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Chad. 

It ended with the adoption of the Douala Declaration, an advocacy document outlining the challenges facing African cotton sector and proposing collective responses, fueled by governments’ support.

The executives of African cotton companies, in their final release, raised the alarm over a deepening crisis in the continent’s cotton sector, calling for urgent and coordinated action by governments to preserve what they described as a strategic pillar of African economies.

Cotton, a lifeline under threat

According to the declaration, cotton remains a cornerstone of rural development across Africa, sustaining millions of producers and their families, creating jobs, generating foreign exchange and contributing to food security and social stability. However, the sector, it stated, is currently facing an “exceptionally difficult” international environment.

It was revealed that African cotton companies are grappling with falling global prices for more than three consecutive seasons, extreme market volatility, high global stocks, heavy subsidies granted to producers in some countries and an unfavourable euro–dollar exchange rate. 

These factors, ACA noted, are seriously undermining the competitiveness of African cotton on the global market. The meeting further revealed that widespread financial fragility across cotton-producing countries, marked by recurring deficits, cash-flow constraints, limited access to credit and a real risk of bankruptcy for some national cotton companies, will persist if corrective measures are not taken.

SODECOTON warns of critical turning point

While welcoming his counterparts at the opening of the deliberations, the Director General of Cameroon’s Cotton Development Corporation, known by its French acronym, SODECOTON, Mohamadou Bayero, described the current situation as a “point of no return” for the sector, if urgent action is not taken.

Bayero recalled that Cameroon’s cotton sector had recorded record performances in recent years, with production rising from about 329,000 tonnes in the 2021–2022 season to a historic peak of 394,000 tonnes in the 2023–2024 season. These gains, he said, were driven by expanded cultivated areas, improved yields and major investments in modernising ginneries, logistics and energy infrastructure. 

However, he said, things have been dangling. 

“Unfortunately, our sector now finds itself at a critical turning point that calls for urgent corrective measures to preserve these gains and guarantee long-term viability,” Bayero cautioned.

He attributed the current crisis to a combination of external shocks, such as global oversupply, estimated at over 11.5 million tonnes for the 2025–2026 season and massive subsidies elsewhere and internal weaknesses, including heavy reliance on campaign pre-financing, mounting treasury pressures and a development model still largely focused on exporting raw fibre.

Push for local transformation

The SODECOTON boss emphasised that Cameroon is seeking to address these structural weaknesses through local transformation of cotton. 

He highlighted the ongoing CAMPEX project, a public–private partnership involving SODECOTON and ARISE company, which aims to establish an integrated textile industry with spinning, weaving, dyeing and garment-making units in Douala and Garoua.

The project, he said, is expected to create about 12,000 jobs and significantly boost local value addition, reduce textile imports and strengthen Cameroon’s industrial base.

ACA calls for solidarity & coordinated advocacy

For his part, ACA President, Kone Kassoum, underscored the need for unity and collective action among African cotton stakeholders. He described the current global context as one of the most uncertain the sector has faced in recent years, combining external market pressures with internal structural challenges.

“The African Cotton Association must, more than ever, play its role as a strategic platform for dialogue, experience-sharing and defence of the interests of our producers and our states,” Kassoum said. 

He urged members to transform current constraints into opportunities for innovation and strategic repositioning through stronger cooperation.

Plea to governments

In the Douala Declaration, ACA and its members called on African governments to urgently support the cotton sector through appropriate policy, financial and institutional measures. 

It warned that failure to act now, could have far-reaching consequences for rural livelihoods, social stability and the resilience of vast agricultural zones across the continent.

The association members assured its commitment to working closely with governments, producer organisations and technical and financial partners to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of African cotton, stressing that the future of millions of African farmers depends on decisive action taken now.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3706 of Tuesday February 17, 2026