Mali has more than 3.5 million cotton farmers, and 17 processing factories. The state-owned Malian Company for the Development of Textile (CMDT) and the sole cotton exporter in Mali announced that 2014-15 season ended with record production of 233,000 tonnes of cotton fibre versus 185,000 tonnes the previous year.

This is the best ever season in industrial terms: 233,000 tonnes of exportable cotton fibre from 549,000 tonnes of raw cotton, said Moussa Yattara, a technical advisor to the CMDT.

Mali produced roughly 550,000 tonnes of raw cotton fibre in the 2014-2015 season, well above the 400,000 tonnes produced the previous year.

The season includes a growing phase from around May to October, and a harvesting and sales period from roughly November to end-March.

Despite Mali’s recent economic and political woes, the landlocked country is one of the leaders in cotton productivity across the world. Cotton, which employs more than 3 million farmers, remains the main cash crop in Mali, producing 450,000 tons in 2013 and placing Mali as the largest producer of cotton in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the 7thlargest in the world.