Weather blamed for fall in Togo cotton volume

LOME (Reuters) - Togo's cotton output is set to fall to a record low of just 30,000 tonnes in the 2009/10 season from 40,000 the year before, the national cotton company said on Monday, citing the impact of irregular rains on production.

One of a clutch of West African nations for whom cotton is a mainstay of the local economy, Togo has seen production steadily fall in recent years from a peak of 180,000 tonnes.

"(The weather) had dampened the enthusiasm of chosen producers for growing cotton," Kokou Djagni, head of the New Cotton Company of Togo (NSCT), told Reuters.

"The area sown would have been greater had the poor rains not had a negative effect on the season," he said of the 42,759 hectares sown this year compared to 55,211 hectares last year.

Togo's record low is the 39,000 tonne crop of 2006/07. Output increased to 55,000 tonnes the year after before falling back to 40,000 in 2008/09.

Djagni said another factor discouraging production was the historically low price of 165 CFA francs per kg this season.