Facility

Olam Agri West Africa Cotton Ginning Network

Olam Agri's West Africa cotton ginning network (primary countries: Côte d'Ivoire — Korhogo, Bouaké gin sites; Benin — Parakou hub; Cameroon — Garoua; Mozambique; Zambia; Zimbabwe); Olam operates 20+ cotton gins across Sub-Saharan Africa with total ginning capacity exceeding 200,000 metric tonnes of lint annually. West African cotton operates under the colonial-era filière system in francophone countries: private operators like Olam provide pre-season inputs (seed, fertilizer) to smallholder farmers on credit, organize collection, gin the seed cotton, and export lint bales. West African cotton (especially Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire) is known for hand-harvested quality with low trash content and no Xinjiang contamination risk. CFA franc zone cotton also benefits from French government export market access. Olam's West Africa position gives it origins increasingly sought by European brands requiring traceable, forced-labor-free cotton supply. Source: Olam Agri Sustainability Report 2023.