Burkina Faso’s Western Cotton Growers Threaten Crop Boycott Over Low Price

Cotton growers in western Burkina Faso have threatened to boycott the crop season over a price for the fiber they say is too low, Abdoulaye Tani, president of the Houet Cotton Producers’ Committee, said.

The group, which has about 500 members, are also upset about the rising cost of fertilizer, he said by phone from the city of Bobo Dioulasso today.

Burkina Faso, sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cotton producer, raised the minimum price farmers will be paid for their crop in the 2011-12 harvest by 35 percent to 245 CFA francs ($0.55) per kilogram, Ali Compaore, the head of a Burkinabe cotton-industry association, said yesterday.

“We are not satisfied with this price because it does not take into account the international market price,” Tani said, asking for the minimum price to be set at 500 francs per kilogram.

Cotton prices in New York have almost doubled in the past year because of a global shortage of the fiber. It dropped for a third straight day, declining 3.6 percent to $1.546 per pound.

Not all of Burkina Faso’s growers support the call for a boycott, said Karim Traore, president of a national cotton farmers’ union that he said has about 8,000 members.

“Many farmers called us to say that they will not sign” a petition planned by the Houet growers’ group, Traore said by phone.

The demand to pay 500 francs for a kilogram of Burkinabe cotton is “not realistic,” said Celestin Tiendrebeogo, chief executive officer of Sofitex, the country’s largest cotton company.

(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-27/burkina-faso-s-western-cotton-growers-threaten-crop-boycott-over-low-price.html)