World Report

A success story: Sodecoton is now one of the top Cameroon companies

perating in the dry and arid northern regions of the country, Sodecoton is Cameroon’s partially state-owned cotton corporation and one of its greatest success stories. Established in 1974 to supply the nation’s only textile manufacturing company with cotton, Sodecoton today is one of the country’s top eight companies and has far surpassed its humble origins. In fact, domestic demand now only comprises 10% of the company’s production, and the other 90% is exported to more than 40 countries worldwide. This is good news for the traditionally underdeveloped and poverty-stricken regions of the north, where Sodecoton has been instrumental in providing employment and empowering the local population to assume greater control in the cotton industry – to such an extent that local producers have recently been guaranteed a 25 percent to 30 percent share of the company once its full privatisation is achieved.

Mohammed Iya
Managing Director of Sodecoton

‘Involving local producers has been key to the company´s success’

Sodecoton’s official task is to promote cotton cultivation among the peasants of North Cameroon, but since 1979 the company has been engaged in setting up village producers’ associations to organise the sale of local production. There are now more than 1,000 of these local associations active in the country. Moreover, the raw cotton is processed at Sodecoton’s ginneries, located in the cotton-producing North region, providing an additional source of employment for the local population. As such, the importance of Sodecoton in the alleviation of poverty in these regions has been incalculable. The company holds 120,000 hectares of land, cultivated by 335,000 small farmers in the Far North, North and Adamaoua provinces, and nearly two million Cameroonians depend on the cotton industry for their living, either directly or indirectly. Economic results have been equally as remarkable. Cottonseed production in the country has increased from 115,000 tons in 1985 to 250,000 tons in 2003. Sodecoton’s Managing Director Mohammed Iya says that the involvement of the local producers has been the key to the company’s success. He comments, “Our policy has completely changed from when we started. Whereas the government used to fix prices, today we negotiate the price with the producer and it is all about fair play. Without the participation of the producers, we would never have succeeded.”