ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast's raw cotton output is expected to fall by more than 30 percent this season because of heavy rain that dented the crop, the Cotton Ginners Association said on Monday.

Production is forecast to be 310,000 tonnes in the 2015-2016 season, which ends at the end of the month, down from 450,000 tonnes the year before. It is also misses forecasts made in November per 484,000-metric ton crop.

The country targets 600,000 tonnes before 2020.

"The season won't be as excellent as it was last season," the Cotton Ginners Association executive secretary, Christophe N'Dry, told Reuters. "Rains were abundant at a time when plants didn't need a lot of water and some farmers say that the seeds were not successful."

Ivory Coast, the world biggest cocoa producer, was one of West Africa's major cotton exporters, with an annual output of about 400,000 tonnes, before a 2002-2003 civil war split the country in two and halved production.

Data from cotton profession association Intercoton showed on Monday that 113,532 farmers were involved in the cotton crop in 2015/16 with 402,014 hectares planted.