May 22 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast has slightly lowered its cotton production forecast for the 2012/13 season to 300,000-315,000 tonnes, the executive secretary of the Ivorian ginners association said on Tuesday.

The forecast is down from the 334,500 tonnes forecast last month but up from about 260,000 tonnes reached in the 2011/12 harvest, Christophe N'Dri told Reuters.

The new figure was given after companies gave a detailed breakdown of the amount of fertilizer available for the year.

Ivory Coast's new cotton season was due to begin on May 20.

N'Dri said the farmgate price for the new campaign was set at 265 CFA francs ($0.52) per kg, the same last season.

He said this year farmers would receive an unspecified bonus at the end of the season if prices remained firm on the world market.

Ivory Coast was one of the West African region'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.

Violence peaked last year when a 2010 election led to months of fighting but the nation has seen a year of reconstruction.

"So long as there is not a collapse in the market, we are sure that by the 2014/15 season we will be able to hit the 400,000 tonne level," N'Dri said. ($1 = 513.7510 CFA francs)