Benin Moves to Spin Its Cotton Into Clothes at Home

In her showroom in the northern city of Parakou, Fatoumata Dosso points to the "Made in Benin" tags on her fabrics as proof of a larger national ambition: keeping more of the value of the country's cotton crop inside its borders.

Dosso, who founded the fashion label DAF Collection, said the tag reflects an effort to make full use of the raw material Benin produces in abundance. It also, she said, creates a livelihood for women in her community who want to earn from cotton. She quit her job as a private secretary to the mayor of Gogounou to focus on the business she started in 2016, drawn by a region where women were learning to weave cotton but had no market for their goods.

"I am more focused on promoting the traditional fabric of northern Benin," she said. "What comes from elsewhere is already everywhere. I wanted to do something special."

Her workshop contracts about a dozen women who weave cotton and polyester yarn into pagne, the wrap cloth worn around the waist or as a headscarf and popular among Fulani herders. One of them, Chabi Baké, a mother of five, earns roughly $545 a month — enough, she said, to begin building a house for her family.

A national policy shift

Dosso's business aligns with government policy that discourages raw-material exports and pushes for finished goods, from pineapple juice to garments made for international brands but still labelled with Benin's name.

Benin is Africa's leading cotton producer, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. It grew 1.15 million bales in 2025-26, about 0.9% of world output — a small share globally, but cotton has long been the country's top cash crop and main export. Production has been declining in eastern and southern Africa, yet Benin continues to bet on the crop.

After exporting almost all of its raw cotton to Bangladesh, Benin began moving toward value addition in 2020 through a public-private partnership with the infrastructure developer Arise IIP. The deal created the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone, or GDIZ, where young workers process pineapples, cashew nuts, ceramics and other export goods.

The zone processes about 40,000 tons of Beninese cotton a year into 7 million to 10 million garments. Its expansion and the shift toward finished exports helped narrow Benin's current account deficit from 6.2% of GDP in 2024 to 5.7% in 2025, according to the African Development Bank.

GDIZ sits 45 kilometres from the commercial capital, Cotonou, on roughly 16 square kilometres of land. In its garment section, station managers supervise workers straightening collars, stitching buttons and pressing and folding T-shirts. Brands such as U.S. Polo Assn. and Kiabi are represented. A manager declined to answer questions and labourers were not allowed to speak to journalists.

Farmers at the base

Souhaïbou Gambari, executive secretary of a national association of cotton producers, said the sector and Benin's garment exports rest on a grassroots network of at least 183,746 producers organised into 2,206 village cooperatives. The sector directly or indirectly supports more than 2 million people in rural areas, he said, making it the leading driver of social inclusion in farming communities.

For smallholders such as Toussaint Bapetem, cotton is an easy choice. The price of a kilogram — 300 West African francs, or about $0.50 — has stayed flat for years, but price-setting authorities guarantee a market. Cotton, unlike maize and other rain-fed crops, does not attract thieves, he said, inspecting his off-season plot near the Nigerian border.

With about 18 workers, the father of four plants three acres of cotton and keeps another four for corn. His last harvest yielded 3.8 tons of cotton, and he said the crop is more profitable than corn, which fetches about $0.20 a kilogram. Earnings since 2024 helped him repay a debt of 500,000 francs ($885) and buy a motorcycle, besides covering his family's needs and his children's schooling.

Bapetem said he knows some of his cotton becomes garments made locally, including clothes he buys once or twice a year at the nearby Bétérou market. Dosso, meanwhile, is taking her "Made in Benin" message to international fashion shows and wants showrooms in every major city in the country.

"My clients are all kinds of people," she said. "They are diverse and come from all social classes."