From
Egyptian cotton bed sheets (said to be the most luxurious in
the world) to the towels you use after a shower; or the undergarments, blue
jeans, shirts and socks that you might wear – all originate from a small
white boll, or seedpod, that is cultivated around the world. This makes cotton
one of the world’s most important commodities, and the most valuable non-food
agricultural crop.
Africa is an important producer and the continent has a significant role
further along the value chain as a manufacturer of apparel. Africa grows just
under 10% of the world’s total cotton harvest, but unlike any other region it
is the smallholder farmer, rather than large-scale plantations, that grow this
crop.Cottonseed is also used to extract edible oil that is used, especially in West Africa, in both animal feed and
products like margarine. Out of the 12 leading African cotton-producing
countries, eight are in West Africa.
The rest of Africa’s cotton growing takes place among four zones along a
north–south strip stretching from the Nile Valley to South Africa. The most
important zone is that of the Nile Valley. Egypt has long been a leading
African producer.The Origin Africa conference in Mauritius, organised under the
aegis of the African Cotton and Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF), took
place over two days in September and drew delegates from across the continent
and further afield; from Asia, the Americas, the US and Europe.
The
first day’s presentations were taken up with the issues concerning cotton
production and the various international crop certification options. One of the
principal organisations offering global cotton production standards is the
Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). Its representative, Romain Deveze, described
how the BCI is bringing an integrated approach to tackling the vulnerabilities
of the complex supply chain to ensure the industry’s sustainability.The BCI
works with about one million farmers, or 8.8% of the global total who grow the
crop, to reduce the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilisers and water while
increasing farmers yields and the take-up of organic fertilisers.
These are important objectives, for, as the Environmental Justice Network has
reported, cotton accounts for 26% of global insecticide releases – more than
any other single crop. Almost 2kg of hazardous pesticides are applied to every
hectare of land under cotton cultivation.These troubling statistics are just
the latest chapter in the awful history of a crop that underpinned the
transatlantic slave trade and caused millions of Africans to be abducted and
subjugated to a life of hard labour in the cotton plantations of the southern
US.
The
cotton industry became one of the world’s largest industries, and most of the
world’s supply of cotton came from the US South, fuelled by the labour of
slaves on plantations.Even with the Union’s victory in the civil war, the
fortunes of plantation slaves changed little. Many became sharecroppers, eking
out a precarious living on a small plot of land growing cotton.1803 to 1937,
the US was the world’s leading cotton exporter. Its cotton industry became a
powerful political lobby, able to sway successive administrations to grant
subsidies to cotton farmers. Cotton’s financial and political influence in the
19th century has been likened to that of the oil industry in the early 21st
century.
Accessing the US market
By
the end of the 1990s, the big four West African cotton farmers – Benin, Burkina
Faso, Chad and Mali – had joined together to express their unhappiness at these
unfair subsidies, but it was Brazil that had the financial muscle to take the
US to the WTO, which found against the US and ordered the elimination of cotton
production subsidies as well as the US agricultural commodity export guarantee
programmes.
While Marsha Powell, representing Cotton USA at the Mauritius
conference, implied that US governentsupport to US cotton farmers was a thing
of the past, a number of other delegates told African Business that US policy
continues to skirt international trade rules. The result has been that,
effectively, the US restricts competition from overseas cotton producers.
Nevertheless, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), has empowered African
manufacturers to export clothing to the US tariff free. This has been driven
by, in the main, Indian, Chinese and Turkish manufacturers switching their
manufacturing to African countries. But there are moves by smaller African
manufacturers to win valuable export market share.For example, the Nigerian
Export Promotion Council organised half a dozen designers to travel to
Mauritius and showcase their fashions at the trade show that followed the
conference.Speaking to African Business, Muinet Atunnise of Atunnise Clothiers
said that she would be returning to Lagos enthused by the reception her
collection had received and determined to take advantage of the many
international connections she had made.
As far as the mass-market industry is concerned Kenya, Lesotho and Mauritius account for
much of the apparel exports under AGOA. In 2014, Kenya exported $423m worth of
apparel to the US, followed by Lesotho with $289m, Mauritius $227m and
Swaziland $77m.According to Gail Strickler, assistant US trade representative
for textiles and apparel, African textile and apparel exports to the US could
potentially quadruple to $4bn over the next decade, creating 500,000 new jobs,
through the renewal of the AGOA signed into law in June 2015.
Impact of new technologies
But the Origin Africa conference did far more than just discuss macro-economic
trends. The second day’s proceedings included a debate on the fourth industrial
revolution (essentially the application of new technologies to the industrial
process) and its impact on the industry.As Jaswinder Bedi, the ACTIF chairman
commented, harnessing new technologies at the right time and throughout the textile value
chain is an essential element for the industry to continue to benefit Africa’s
millions of cotton farmers.And
speaking to African Business, Yousouf Djime Sidime, the permanent secretary to
the Bamako-based Association of African Cotton Producers said that his
organisation was determined to both grow production and ensure farmers received
a fair price for their harvests.
Source: Ahram Online, Egypt Wednesday, 18 October 2017