Mali: Less than 5% of cotton processed locally, Bamako creates a national textile company

As the leading cotton producer in the West African sub-region, Mali currently processes less than 5% of its fiber on its own soil. To break away from this model, the government has created the Mali Textile Company, announced on July 29, 2026, during a Council of Ministers meeting, reports the Ecofin Agency.

This public enterprise will be responsible for the entire chain: spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, fabric finishing, garment manufacturing, and the marketing of textile products. The state also plans to build a processing plant with an annual capacity of 40,000 tons. Neither the cost of the investment nor the construction schedule has been made public, Ecofin specifies.

Falling prices, a costly dependency

The urgency is also arithmetic. Cotton is Mali's second-largest export product after gold, but the World Bank anticipates a 3.5% year-on-year decline in the average price of fiber, to 1.65 dollars per kilogram in 2026, according to data cited by Ecofin. In other words: a country that sells its raw fiber absorbs the decline without any buffer.

Processing locally changes the equation. A meter of fabric, a finished garment, or spun yarn sells for much more than the raw material, and the value created remains in the country, along with the industrial jobs that come with it.

A strategy built in stages

The new company is not starting from scratch. In 2022, Mali launched the Malian Spinning Company (SOMAFIL), designed to process 45,000 tons of fiber per year at sites in Bamako and Koutiala, and adopted a recovery plan for the Malian Textile Company (COMATEX), a historic firm in the sector.

In May 2025, the Malian Company for Textile Development (CMDT) had signed a memorandum of understanding with a German consulting consortium to develop an integrated textile industrial complex, again according to Ecofin.

The gamble of industrialization

The stated objective is threefold: to diversify revenue sources, create industrial jobs, and reduce the country's vulnerability to global price fluctuations.

The most difficult part remains, and it is not unique to Mali. West Africa has been producing cotton for over a century and still exports the majority of it raw, due to a lack of reliable energy, long-term financing, and protected markets. Announcements of factories are numerous; factories running at full capacity are significantly fewer. It is on this specific point—and not on the creation decree—that the Mali Textile Company will be judged.