African Cotton: Africa Grows the Raw Material, the West Captures the Value

Cotton is one of the rare sectors where Africa dominates global production without reaping the rewards. For decades, several African countries - notably Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast - have grown long-staple cotton renowned for its quality, yet most textile processing takes place outside the continent. According to allAfrica, which is launching a new editorial series titled "Cotton to Cloth," Africa grows more than half of the world's finest long-staple cotton but earns less than 3% of that cotton's eventual value. The outlet argues this is not a trade problem but a "narrative problem," which it aims to address through in-depth editorial work. If these figures hold true, the stakes are significant: lost foreign currency earnings, industrial jobs not created locally, persistent dependence on global prices set outside the continent, and a barrier to textile industrialization that several national strategies have identified as a priority. However, the analysis must remain cautious: the source cites no specific study or organization to support these two statistics, which originate from allAfrica itself as part of launching its own series. The gap between raw production and captured value is classically explained by a lack of spinning and weaving mills, energy and logistics costs, and competition from better-integrated Asian textile value chains - but these factors remain interpretive hypotheses here, not verified data.