Mali Restarts Cotton Shipments From Ivory Coast’s Abidjan Port

Mali, Africa’s second-biggest cotton exporter, resumed shipments of the fiber from neighboring Ivory Coast after a civil war halted most operations at that country’s two main ports.

The land-locked West African nation sent 20,000 metric tons of cotton by road to the port of Abidjan, the commercial capital, said Moumouni Guindo, the managing director of Malian warehouses in Ivory Coast, by phone yesterday.

Mali was forced to redirect its cotton shipments to ports in Ghana and Togo as a four-month political crisis following a disputed November presidential election triggered a trade blockade of Ivory Coast’s ports at Abidjan and San Pedro.

Production during the 2011-12 harvest is projected at 125,190 tons, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. July-delivery cotton rose 0.1 percent to $1.5585 per pound by 12:36 p.m. in London today.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-20/mali-restarts-cotton-shipments-from-ivory-coast-s-abidjan-port.html