FAO Hosts 2025 World Cotton Day Conference

To mark the World Cotton Day 2025 (#WCD2025), the Republic of Chad, the Interantional Trade Center (ITC), and the Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations jointly organized a conference at the headquarters of the FAO in Rome, Italy, on Tuesday the 7th of October 2025. In 2024, the World Cotton Day Conference was hosted by Benin and took place in Cotonou.

The Conferennce took place in hybrid mode, with both physical and virutal presence. Designed to inspire action and showcase innovation in the cotton sector. the program is divided into two halves: Transforming Cotton into Design and From Field to Fashion.

The Conference underlined the significance of cotton as a meas of livelihood of 24 million of growers and support 100 million families globally. It is an important source of foreign exchange for low-income countries. The top five cotton-producing countries are China, India, Brazil, and the United States.

In Africa, the cotton sector is highly fragmented as it is mostly smallholders that cultivate it. In Africa, 70% of the cotton is grown in West Africa, with Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Chad, making up the Top Five. Egypt has carved a niche into the high-end long-fiber market.

The participants believe that the cotton sector must move toward greater efficiency, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability by adopting research, innovation, digitalization. Additionally, promoting Local Value Addition (#LVA) would unlock the economic potential by creating factory jobs and generating more benefits locally.

However, one of the key challenges facing cotton is the competition from synthetic fibers. More specifically, synthetic fibers are displacing cotton due to their low cost of production and versatility. Cotton has lost its top position to polyester and now account for only 20% of total fiber demand.