West African Cotton and Global Value Chains: From Production to Textiles

Abstract

Many West African countries, especially Francophone ones, have been involved in the production of cotton since the colonial era. Most of this production is exclusively for export, meaning that there is little local transformation of the cotton into finished products (textiles). At the same time, West Africans are the unique and voracious consumers of African Wax Print Textiles, which are manufactured mostly in Asia and Europe (Holland). As a result, West African countries intervene in the value chain only at the beginning (production of cotton) and end (consumption). They realize relatively little profit from production, while spending large amounts on consumption – a phenomenon which perpetuates their position at the bottom of today’s global economy. My thesis will use value chain analysis to ask whether there might be ways to insert these countries into the chain of value between these two end-points.