Tanzania plans to more than double its cotton production in the next five years as farmers increase cultivation, encouraged by higher prices for the fibre. The government’s goal is to boost its cotton production to 1 million metric tonnes by 2025.
The country’s output for the 2020-21 season is expected to increase to 400,000 metric tonnes from 348,882 tonnes in 2019-20.
Cotton is Tanzania’s fourth-biggest cash crop after cashews, tobacco and coffee, and fetched the East African nation $68.4 million of export earnings in 2018. Output in Tanzania peaked in the 2005-06 season at about 370,000 tonnes before falling to just under 133,000 tonnes in 2016-17.
