Africa : Cotton Producers Joining Brazil On Subsidy Issue

African cotton producers are joining Brazil in their official complaint to the World Trade Organization about subsidies paid to their counterparts in the United States and Europe.

In the US, for example, some 25,000 cotton producers receive almost $4bn a year in subsidies.

According to the World Bank, this has had a substantial influence on the world price for cotton, which has been hovering at all-time lows in the past two years.

At least 10 million small-scale cotton growers in West and Central Africa are suffering dramatically from the plummeting prices.

In a good year, in the village of Konseguila, southern Mali, small-scale farmers can earn about up to a $1,000 a year by growing cotton.

That is about three times the average annual income in this impoverished country in West Africa.