Last week's meetings of the International Cotton Association in Dubai were highly inadvisable for depressives and other emotional people. 

Right from the start, the tone was set: the strength of the dollar has enabled Brazil and Australia to increase their production considerably. Having become the world's 2nd largest exporter, the United States is now counting on the future weakness of the greenback, on a boost from the new Farm Bill Aid (there is now talk of an extra 15 billion) and finally on the rise of the Loan to try to compete with Brazil, whose production could soon reach 5 million tonnes for a total traded volume of 8 million. 

The evidence is chilling: China will be importing less and less, and the trade war over agricultural production will rage on between America and Brazil. The only alternative being considered, against a backdrop of environmental protection and the impact of microplastics on health, is to erode the market share of synthetic fibres. 

Otherwise, according to the same speaker, some producers will have to disappear. 

Today, sub-Saharan Africa is clearly in danger because it cannot lower its cost price, differentiate its production or consume its production locally. Despite the excellence of its fibre and the considerable social impact of this crop, the warning must be heeded. 

The Trump Administration's "shutdown" is still going on, blocking any visibility on whether AGOA will be maintained or not. In such a context, it is difficult to envisage a future for a sustainable textile industry in Africa for want of outlets. 

These statements come in an already depressed market where the entire value chain is suffering, from producer to distributor. 

However, the traceability of cottons means that US distributors can insist that finished products are made from American fibres. 

The current tensions in the global economy are leading to an increasingly inward-looking and protectionist stance. The jungle of customs duties is giving way to state interventionism. 

Our market, "out of breath" like many others, is looking for a new saving impetus, which is slow in coming. 

For the time being, will the world's leading economy allow its currency and key interest rates to fall, at the risk of seeing a currency war added to the ongoing trade war? For its part, France's interminable political crisis has weakened the euro and contributed to the strengthening of the dollar, and we can bet that this will continue.

While we wait for a hypothetical drop in the consumption of synthetic products in the years to come, we urgently need to take action to save African cotton from the predicted disaster. 

Europe cannot shirk its obligation, if only a moral one, to intervene without delay. It is unimaginable that one of the most environmentally-friendly cottons (rain-fed, hand-picked, with limited chemical inputs) should disappear in favour of others that are more harmful to the planet.