Report compiled for the 2006 Paris International Agricultural Fair
All you need to know about cotton
The issues for the cotton commodity chain
Cotton is in crisis due to a price slump, which is affecting numerous producers, populations and governments in developing countries.
This has prompted some countries* to use the international stage to denounce the support policies from which producers in countries that practise subsidies benefit. For the first time, a group of African cotton-producing countries has launched an appeal for the abolition of subsidies, notably those paid by the United States and the European Union, in an attempt to raise public awareness of the economic damage they cause in the African countries concerned.
The operations implemented to prevent crises or limit their adverse effects are many and various, and depend greatly on the factors seen to be behind the crises.
Global cotton fibre production reached 26 million tonnes in 2004-2005, and more than 7.5 million tonnes of fibre were traded on the world's markets. Cotton helps to ensure food security and longer lifespans in many rural areas of developing countries. More than 100 million family farms rely on cotton in such countries, and it is a driving force for development in Africa, which is why the sharp price drop in recent years has caused an unprecedented crisis on the continent.
The economic and social importance of cotton is not specific to any one region worldwide and does not only concern cotton production proper. It also encompasses industrial cotton processing, which drove industrial development in Europe and subsequently in the United States.
* Brazil, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad