Compagnie malienne pour le développement du textile
Encyclopedia
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
an cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
company. The company is owned by the Malian state and is charged with the production and marketing of Mali's cotton. It is based in Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...
and has several production sites through the country, in particular at Koutiala
Koutiala
Koutiala is a city in Mali in the administrative region of Sikasso. Koutiala serves as the capital of its administrative Cercle, home to 355,289 people. As of 2005, Koutiala has an estimated 96,600 residents and an area of 18 000 km²...
and Fana.
Partially privatized (the Compagnie française pour le développement du textile holds a part of the shares), its total privatization is scheduled for 2008. This privatization, required by the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
is opposed by many Malian farmers. The Forum des peuples
Forum des peuples
The Forum des peuples is an annual demonstration organized since 2002 inMali by the Coalition des alternatives africaines dettes et développement joining together the alter-globalists of the developing countries....
, which had a meeting in Fana in July 2005, also launched a petition demanding the abandonment of the privatization plan.
On June 18, 2005 the CMDT inaugurated a new factory, with a capacity of 230 tonnes per day, in Ouéléssébougou, in the industrial zone of the Office de la haute vallée du Niger (OHVN). With this new factory the total capacity of the CMDT reached 575,000 tonnes of fibre per annum.