BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali produced about 400,000 tonnes of raw cotton this season, up 65 percent from last year but short of a 500,000 tonne forecast, the state cotton company said on Tuesday.

"We consider this season a success," Tiena Coulibaly, head of state cotton firm Cmdt, said on state radio. "Four hundred thousand tonnes is not 500,000 tonnes, but it is a lot more than 243,000 tonnes," he said, referring to last season's output.

Mali's cotton season runs from April to April, but growing tends to end in October. The government can estimate full production by surveying plantations prior to harvest and marketing.

Coulibaly said the increase in output this year was due to better rains and a higher fixed purchasing price. He said the country missed its target, however, as less rain fell during the growing season than the government had expected.

The semi-arid West African state is among Africa's top cotton growers, though output is below its peaks since a slump in global cotton prices in the mid-1990s.