Ways Forward for West African Organic & Fairtrade Cotton

The second edition of the Salon International du Coton et du Textile (SICOT) was a great success for the organizers, the Organic & Fairtrade Cotton Coalition and its partners. Over 2’000 people from 30 countries attended the two-day conference with the aim to promote cotton as an engine for industrialization and economic growth for African states. Representatives of the Organic & Fairtrade Cotton Coalition seized the moment to promote organic & fairtrade cotton. The inauguration of West Africa’s first organic cotton ginning plant emphasized the potential for social, ecological and economical sustainability in local transformation. Participants of the second Regional Organic Cotton Round Table West Africa (OCRT) discussed ways forward for West African states to meet the growing demand of brands for organic fibres while upgrading local farms and firms in their positions in the global value chains.

At the official inauguration of West Africa’s first ginning factory dedicated to organic cotton, participants witnessed the ginning of the first bale of organic cotton. The organic cotton ginnery is not only a strong signal for the promotion of organic & fairtrade cotton in Burkina Faso. More importantly, it makes the production of organic cotton more attractive for farmers because the prioritization of organic cotton at the ginning plant translates into earlier payments. Until now, the organic cotton wasn’t ginned until April-June, when all conventional cotton had been ginned. With the ginnery dedicated to organic cotton, it will be possible to gin the organic cotton as early as January/February. This has two main advantages: Firstly, the farmers will be paid earlier and will therefore be able to buy their input for the next season without having to take up a credit. This makes organic farming more financially secure and attractive. Secondly, the seeds extracted at ginning will be available at an optimal timing for the sowing in May/June. In other years, the late ginning had led to the unavailability of the seeds at seedtime. In that sense, the inauguration of the first ginnery with priority for organic cotton is a huge step towards the reliability of organic cotton production in the area and both the producers themselves as well as the brands with a demand for sustainable cotton will profit from this development.

Around 100 people from diverse public & private backgrounds participated in the Regional Organic Cotton Round Table (OCRT) West Africa to learn about current activities and ways forward for the organic & fairtrade cotton sector in the area. In the first session, organic cotton producers and local artisans & designers from Burkina Faso shared their experiences with production and local transformation. They covered a range of topics from successful business models & strategies for farm upgrading to the importance of organic cultivation for female producers and the presentation of a model case for local transformation. In the second session, representatives of the Organic & Fairtrade Cotton Coalition from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Benin and Mali shared their knowledge on organic cotton production and their experiences in regards to opportunities and risks for commercialization. Their testimonies were followed by an input from delegate Arun Ambatipudi from Chetna Organic, an Indian initiative for organic cotton. Arun emphasized the importance of South-South collaboration and mapped out strategies to increase the market outreach. Lastly, an interactive workshop invited the participants to discuss future strategies regarding the production and commercialization of organic & fairtrade cotton as well as how local transformation can be stimulated. Three areas of action were identified:

1) Action Plan for Marketing: 
Organize a meeting pf the Organic & Fairtrade Cotton Coalition in Europe in the year 2020 to establish contact with brands & financial partners. 

2) Action Plan for Transformation: 
Support the local transformation of organic cotton in West Africa through the implementation of various concrete initiatives.

3) Action Plan for Production:
Technical, scientific and financial support to facilitate access to high-quality organic inputs and strengthen the capacity of producers to produce them.

If you would like to contribute to these initiatives, you can find further information here.  

During two meetings, the Organic & Fairtrade Cotton Coalition West Africa discussed ways forward for the joint promotion of organic & fairtrade cotton from West Africa. The country representatives from Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal reinforced their commitment to collaborate on the sourcing and commercialization of organic & fairtrade cotton. They see the strong potential of working closely together for knowledge and experiences as well as gaining visibility on the international market. A delegate of the Indian Initiative Chetna Organic, Arun Ambatipudi, shared his experiences of collaborating with international brands and reinforced the huge potential of West African organic cotton production: He emphasized the diversity of organic cotton in West Africa as well as the fact that, much unlike India, West African states do not face the threat of a seed market that almost exclusively consists of GMO. During an exchange with Arun, the representatives voiced the strong need for greater South to South collaboration among organic & fairtrade cotton producers and promoters. Furthermore, they decided to mobilize financing for a meeting in Europe to establish contact with brands & donors and to promote the opportunities of collaborating with organic & fairtrade cotton production in West African states.

Overall, the organic & fairtrade cotton events at SICOT 2020 were a huge success that reinforced both the rising demand for sustainable solutions and the potential of West African states to meet it. These events were organized by Textile Exchange, Catholic Relief Service (CRS), Organic & Fairtrade Cotton Coalition West Africa (represented by ecos and FiBL) and UNPCB. In addition to the partners mentioned above, the events were supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Swiss government (SDC) as well as by the Ministry of Trade, Business and Handicraft of Burkina Faso.

For anyone who was not able to make it to Burkina Faso, but would like to get a detailed insight into the Regional Organic Cotton Round Table West Africa, you can download the presentations and the workshop results. Or you can follow the full discussions around the presentations on our recordings of the event (Session 1, Session 2 & Workshop Presentation).

For further information about the potential and current production status of organic cotton in West Africa, and globally, we suggest you read the Organic Cotton Market Report 2019 by Textile Exchange. For details about the situation in Sub-Saharan Africa with regards to the risks related to the introduction of genetically modified cotton and the potential of organic farming and other preferred cotton initiatives, we recommend the White Paper produced by Textile Exchange’s Pan-Africa Sourcing Working Group in 2019.

During the first week of November 2020, the global Organic Cotton Round Table (OCRT) will take place at the Annual Textile Sustainability conference in Dublin, Ireland.

The third edition of the SICOT will take place on January 27th & 28th 2022 in Koudougou, Burkina Faso.