West African cotton output is forecast to jump over 19 per cent for the 2014-15 season. The reason: high government-fixed prices have attracted growers back to the sector. Before a market crash in the early 2000s, the seven top cotton-producing countries in the region had accounted for about 15 per cent of the world’s cotton exports.

They are now ramping up output again, already showing a rise of 7 per cent in 2013-14 from the season before as a rebound in world prices in recent years has allowed governments to increase what they pay farmers. Harvesting in most of the region is expected to start next month before picking up from December. Harvest has been early this year because farmers planted a lot in May. So some cotton was ready by September.

Ivory Coast, Benin and Senegal are all predicting production increases for 2014-15. Togo is forecasting a jump of over 54 per cent. In Cameroon, 2013-14 output rose nearly 7 per cent on the back of favorable weather. That figure would have been higher, but a significant portion of the crop was lost due to smuggling to neighboring Nigeria.

Burkina Faso, the regional leader, is targeting an output of 8,00,000 tonnes in 2014-15, up 23 per cent from the recently ended season.