In Ivory Coast, a ship loaded with a container of cotton fiber left on June 16 for the port of Alexandria, Egypt. This initiative, published by the economic portal Abidjan.net, is part of a cooperation agreement previously signed between both countries.

Although the volume of the cargo has not been revealed, this operation marks the first shipment of Ivorian cotton to the country of the pharaohs. It was carried out thanks to the collaboration between the Cotton and Cashew Council (CCA) and the local subsidiary of the Singaporean agribusiness group Olam Agri.

«I want to congratulate the Olam Agri team for facilitating the implementation of this operation and the marketing of Ivorian cotton to Egypt. We hope that this first shipment will be the beginning of a long partnership,” said Wael Ibrahim Badawi, Ambassador of Egypt to Côte d'Ivoire.

“This collaborative approach is proof of the Ivorian government's ability to facilitate, together with the private sector, initiatives that provide opportunities for national production,” said Simplice Gué, representative of the director general of the CCA. This new cooperation with the North African country should allow the Ivorian cotton industry to diversify its list of markets dominated by Asian players.

According to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Pakistan and Bangladesh are the main buyers of Ivory cotton fiber, accounting for almost 70% of shipments in 2021/2022, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

In addition, Côte d'Ivoire will join other African exporters such as Benin, Sudan and Burkina Faso, which are already present in the country of the pharaohs, which is the main importer of fiber on the continent, with purchases that reached almost 633 million dollars in 2022, according to TradeMap data.

As a reminder, Olam Agri has two debarking units with a combined capacity of 70,000 tonnes in operation in Ferkessédougou and Ouangolodougou. The company, active in the Ivorian cotton industry since 2008, inaugurated on May 12 the construction of a new plant with a total cost of 16 million dollars, with the aim of increasing its cotton dehulling capacity in the country to 130,000 tons in the long term.

Source: Agenceecofin