Cotton output drops

Cotton production in Mali is expected to drop significantly this year, AFP quoted Rural Development Minister El Madani Diallo as saying on Friday. Mali’s cotton producers decided at the end of May to stop planting the crop to protest a drop in buying prices and an increase in their debts, and planted cereals instead, Diallo said. He said he intended to announce a restructuring plan for the cotton sector, which accounts for half of Mali’s gross domestic product. AFP reported an expert of the Malian Textile Development Company as saying that production fell in 1999 by six percent to 485,621 mt, and was unlikely to exceed 400,000 mt this year.