(Togo First) - Togo produced 70,000 t of cotton in the 2023-2024 season. The figure was reported by the country’s Cotton company, the Nouvelle Société Cotonière du Togo (NSCT). 

The recent output is a significant improvement compared to 2022 and 2021 where the country had produced respectively 46,549 t and 52,528 t of cotton. The increase is thus the first since 2020, the year in which the cotton company was taken over by Singaporean giant OLAM. 

The NSCT’s director, Martin Drevon, reported the statistics at the launch of the new sales campaign on January 31. "This development is the result of the combined efforts of cotton growers and technicians as a whole, but also of structural and technological developments in the field,” Drevon declared. 

For their part, the sector’s stakeholders attribute the increased output to a greater sown area. Indeed, in 2023-2024, about 79,200 ha of land was sown for a yield of 815 kg/ha, against 66,017 ha in 2022-2023 (for a yield of 705/ha). 

Despite surging, the recent output failed to meet the expectations of stakeholders who had forecast a minimum production of 93,500 t grown on 110,00 ha (thus corresponding to a yield of 850 kg/ha).

Esaïe Edoh