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Cameroon textile programme / Section 01 · The cotton base

The fibre is grown here.
Almost none is spun at home.

Cameroon harvests more than three hundred thousand tonnes of seed cotton a year across an organised northern basin, yet exports roughly ninety-five percent of its ginned lint raw. Closing that processing gap is the material foundation of the programme.

≈340,000 t2024 · seed cotton
Pull the harvest threadProcedural visualisation. Schematic, not a facility.

Axis starts at 0 tAxis starts at 300,000 t (zoomed)

Seed-cotton harvests in the programme annex: the 2023 study window observed the 314,455-tonne crop; the 2026 refresh records about 340,000 tonnes for 2024 and projects above 350,000 tonnes for 2025. A zoomed axis exaggerates small steps.

01 / The harvest ledger

Seed-cotton output held above 300,000 tonnes while the wider CFA zone contracted.

Seed cotton · 2022

330,000 t
Reported national harvest

First year of the series. The 2023 to 2025 steps below are GFT arithmetic from R01 and R02.

Seed cotton · 2023

314,455 t
Study-window crop, fieldwork September to December 2023

Down 4.7 percent on 2022 (15,545 t of 330,000 t). GFT arithmetic from R01.

Seed cotton · 2024

≈340,000 t
About 340,000 tonnes, 2026 source refresh

Up roughly 8 percent on 2023 (about 340,000 t against 314,455 t). GFT arithmetic from R01.

Seed cotton · 2025P

>350,000 t
Projection above 350,000 tonnes

Up roughly 3 percent or more on 2024 (above 350,000 t against about 340,000 t). GFT arithmetic from R01 and R02.

CFA franc zone · 2024/25

2,300,000 t
Regional cotton output, down 11.5 percent on the year (Ecofin Agency)

Not a share of the Cameroon figure: the sources define the two crops separately, so GFT never divides one by the other.

Crop year
Chart baseline
Crop denominator

Hand-over 01 to 02 · Harvest thread to gin intake

Supply continuity lowers raw-material sourcing risk.

≈340,000 t seed cotton (2024) enters SODECOTON’s 9 ginning plants

Direction of travel, drawn from one zero line

Cameroon, 2022 to 2024+3.0%
CFA zone, 2024/25-11.5%
Cameroon: 330,000 t to about 340,000 t, GFT arithmetic on the annex figures. CFA zone: year on year, Ecofin Agency. Different crops, periods and bases; Cameroon’s steady line reflects SODECOTON’s extension, seed and input-credit model.

02 / Gathered through one counterparty

SODECOTON gathers more than 220,000 growers into nine ginning plants.

Cameroon’s cotton is not brokered lot by lot: Société de Développement du Coton du Cameroun (SODECOTON) aggregates the northern belt’s seed cotton, gins it and sells the lint. Press a node to read it.

1 dot = 1,000 growers (scale of the drawing; the source says more than 220,000)

SODECOTON hub

9 gins · 2 oil mills

SODECOTON’s company profile records more than 220,000 producers, nine ginning plants and two cottonseed oil mills; the study’s sector table puts the nine gins at about 320,000 tonnes of seed-cotton capacity (study-annex estimate). One counterparty supplies uniform lint bales and a documented farm-to-gin chain of custody.

Growers

>220,000 growers

Registered cotton producers supported across northern Cameroon. Aggregation at this scale lets a manufacturer deal with one organised counterparty instead of brokering lint lot by lot.

Harvest

314k to 350k t

Seed-cotton harvests of 330,000 tonnes (2022), 314,455 tonnes (2023), about 340,000 tonnes (2024) and a 2025 projection above 350,000 tonnes. Seed cotton is unginned field weight.

Rural cash

≈US$100m a year

Financial Fortune Media reports that SODECOTON injects roughly US$100 million a year into rural communities: gross rural income circulation attributed to SODECOTON, paid back along the grower link.

Raw export

≈95% raw

About 95 percent of ginned cotton fibre leaves as lint bales, against about 5 percent processed locally. This is the boundary where measurement stops and the value leaves.

Local conversion

≈5% to 50%

About 5 percent of the fibre is spun and woven at home today. The 50 percent local-processing target for 2030 is restated in SND30; a policy target is not installed capacity.

The cotton base at a glance · eight bale tags

  1. Seed-cotton harvest · 2022

    330,000 t

    Unginned field weight reported for 2022.

  2. Seed-cotton harvest · 2023

    314,455 t

    Study-window crop, fieldwork September to December 2023.

  3. Seed-cotton harvest · 2024

    ≈340,000 t

    About 340,000 tonnes: the 2026 source-refresh figure in the programme annex.

  4. Seed-cotton projection · 2025

    >350,000 t

    Above 350,000 tonnes: the 2026 source-refresh projection from trade press.

  5. CFA-zone output · 2024/25

    2.3m t, down 11.5%

    Regional franc-zone crop. A different crop, not a share of the Cameroon harvest.

  6. Growers and ginning

    >220,000 · 9 gins · 2 mills

    SODECOTON company profile; the study’s ginning note is about 320,000 t (study-annex estimate).

  7. Rural cash injection

    ≈US$100m a year

    Gross rural income circulation attributed to SODECOTON.

  8. Raw export against local conversion

    ≈95% raw · ≈5% local

    Cameroon Trade Hub baseline; SND30 restates a 50 percent local target for 2030.

03 / Four boundaries, four denominators

Seed cotton, ginned lint, spun yarn and garments are four distinct denominators.

314,455 t to >350,000 tSeed cotton, field weight, 2023 to 2025 projection

Boundary 01 · Field to gin

Seed cotton contains both lint fibre and cottonseed.

The 314,455 tonnes recorded in 2023 and roughly 340,000 tonnes in 2024 measure unginned seed cotton arriving at SODECOTON’s nine ginning plants. Ginning separates spinnable lint bales from cottonseed, which feeds the two oil mills.

≈95% raw / ≈5% localShare of ginned lint fibre, annex baseline

Boundary 02 · Gin to port or mill

The 95/5 ratio applies to ginned cotton fibre.

Once ginned into lint bales, roughly 95 percent is exported raw and only about 5 percent enters local spinning and weaving. Moving toward the 50 percent SND30 target by 2030 needs both upstream spinning capacity and downstream garment assembly.

12,000 t a yearCamtext SA planned processing, optimal capacity around 2033

Boundary 03 · Lint to yarn

Upstream spinning is a separate, planned pole.

Camtext SA plans 12,000 tonnes a year of processed fibre. That is a yarn-side denominator of its own: it is not a share of national seed cotton, and the two are never divided into each other on this page.

3.0m garments a yearIllustrative nameplate, planning estimate

Boundary 04 · Yarn to 3.0m garments

A focused cut-make-trim line absorbs a tiny fraction of national lint.

The programme sizes its greenfield venture at an illustrative nameplate of 3.0 million garments a year (planning estimate). Even alongside Camtext SA’s planned 12,000 tonnes a year of processing, raw fibre supply in Cameroon is never the binding constraint.

Test a line in the OEE simulator
Garoua · cotton beltDouala-Dibamba · port

04 / Where the plant sits

The plant sits between cotton-belt proximity and port-corridor infrastructure.

The study does not pre-decide the site without the sponsor’s land and utility terms. It structures the trade-off between the Garoua cotton belt and the Douala-Dibamba corridor. Drag the bead along the band.

50of 100

A balanced siting. Lint haul and finished-goods haul each cover about half of the corridor.

Option A · Garoua (0%)

Beside the gins and the raw lint

Near nine ginning plants, more than 220,000 producers and the 3,000-job Camtext SA northern component. Wages sit near the SMIG floor (XAF 43,969 a month from February 2024); garments face the long haul.

Option B · Douala-Dibamba (100%)

Port access, denser grid, hub adjacency

Beside the primary seaport, the largest urban retail concentration and the 12,000-job Dibamba hub of Camtext SA. Power, technicians and CEMAC distribution are simpler; lint makes the long haul south.
Live comparison of the two siting ends and the position chosen on the corridor
FactorGaroua endAt this positionDouala-Dibamba end
Lint inboundMinimal haul: the plant sits beside SODECOTON’s nine ginning plants. 50% of the corridorGinned cotton or yarn must travel south down the national rail-and-road spine.
Finished goods outboundA long overland haul to southern urban markets and port corridors.50% of the corridorAdjacent to the primary seaport and the largest urban retail concentration.
Labour and wage floorWage expectations align closely with the statutory floor, SMIG XAF 43,969 a month from February 2024. Floor-aligned wages against easier technician hiringTechnician recruitment is simpler. The sources give no Douala wage figure; the SMIG floor is national.
Power and distributionThe study text names no northern grid advantage.Mixed: depends on the sponsor’s utility termsPower conditioning and regional CEMAC distribution are simpler, with denser grid infrastructure.
Camtext SA hubAbout 3,000 jobs in the northern component at Garoua. Between the hubs: 3,000 jobs north, 12,000 southAbout 12,000 jobs at the Dibamba hub.

Haul bars are shares of the Garoua to Douala-Dibamba axis, not kilometres: the sources give no distances. The sponsor’s land and utility terms decide the final siting.

Engineering lens · filter active table rows

Three lenses read the same table.

Chain of custody, capital containment and resource measurement each depend on different rows. Pick one: its rows light, the others dim.

Bale-level provenance starts at the gin.

Wherever the sewing line sits, GFT’s digital strategy assigns a lot identifier at SODECOTON bale intake, so every finished garment carries verifiable origin data. This lens lights the lint-inbound row.

Partner upstream; own cut, make, trim and brand.

Building spinning, weaving, wet processing and assembly at once needs hundreds of millions of dollars, as Camtext SA’s US$300m scope shows. A Phase 1 focused on cut-make-trim contains capital risk. This lens lights the hub row.

Measure water, dye and energy per unit from shift one.

The sustainability promise is written as engineered metrics inside the performance-management system: traceable cotton, metered wet processing and audited waste ratios. This lens lights the labour and power rows. Read the engineering method

05 / The bale, end-on

Ninety-five percent of Cameroon’s cotton fibre leaves the country raw.

The raw material is already grown, ginned and graded at scale; conversion into yarn, cloth and garments stays near five percent. Step the index toward the 50 percent target and watch the ends convert.

5%processed locally

95%exported raw

Current annex baseline: about 5 percent processed locally

Programme annex figure from Cameroon Trade Hub (R06).
100 fibre ends = 100 units of ginned lint (an index, not tonnes). Ochre: exported raw to external spinning mills. Sage: converted at home, filling from the bottom row. The 15 and 30 percent stops are illustrative.

06 / Policy and capital, on one time axis

Public capital and national strategy are moving behind local conversion.

Year on the axis2025

2022202320242025202620272028202920302031203220332034203520282029203020312032LOCAL PLY ≈5% TODAY (R06)NO PATH IS SOURCED50% FRAME · 2030 (R07)330,000 t314,455 t≈340,000 tUS$300MCAMTEXT SA · 180 BN XAFDIBAMBA ≈12,000 JOBSGAROUA ≈3,000 JOBSSODECOTON + CICAM POLE (R08)A TARGET IS NOT INSTALLED CAPACITY12,000 T A YEAR · ≈2033 (R10)
Harvest base

>350,000 t

2025 projection

Capital

US$300 million

Camtext SA, 12 Nov 2025 (180 billion XAF); return near 11 years

Policy target

50% by 2030

Local processing, from about 5%

Upstream capacity

12,000 t a year

Camtext SA, optimal capacity around 2033

2022 to 2024

Organised northern harvest proves raw-material durability.

Seed-cotton harvests of 330,000 tonnes (2022), 314,455 tonnes (2023) and about 340,000 tonnes (2024) confirm a reliable agricultural base supported by SODECOTON across more than 220,000 growers.

12 Nov 2025

Camtext SA integrated cotton-to-textile project announced at US$300 million.

Panafritex and Arise, with SODECOTON, CNPS and Marlo, announced Camtext SA at US$300 million (180 billion XAF). It targets 12,000 tonnes a year of processed fibre, about 12,000 jobs at Dibamba and 3,000 at Garoua.

2030 horizon

SND30 50% local-processing target and SODECOTON-CICAM industrial pole.

The National Development Strategy (SND30) restates the 50 percent local-processing target by 2030, reinforced by the announced merger of SODECOTON and CICAM to form a national cotton-textile industrial pole by 2030.

≈2033 horizon

Optimal capacity horizon for large-scale upstream integration.

Camtext SA is projected to reach optimal capacity around 2033. A nimble private cut-make-trim venture can launch earlier by partnering for spinning and knitting while sourcing traceable SODECOTON cotton.

07 / Verdict on the material base

Raw material is abundant and policy-backed; conversion decides the venture.

Supply exceeds 300,000 tonnes a year and policy rewards local processing, so the study moves on to market absorption, trade routes and line utilisation.

Closing instrument · Cotton value-flow explorer

Select a conversion boundary or crop year to trace mass and value retention

Station 01 · Seed cotton

≈340,000 t
Seed cotton, field weight, 2024

Station 02 · Ginned lint

≈95% raw
Share of ginned lint fibre exported raw

Station 03 · Spun yarn

12,000 t a year
Camtext SA planned processing, its own denominator

Station 04 · Garments

3.0m a year
Garments: illustrative nameplate, planning estimate Illustrative

The cotton is already grown and ginned. Value begins where measurement enters the mill.

End-of-thread hand-over · Programme · Section 02

Market and demand: where the converted cloth goes

Concentric demand across Cameroon (US$94.70/person), CEMAC/CEEAC, and the US$37.3bn African textile market.

US$94.70 per personContinue to Market and demand
Methodological and legal qualification. Figures are drawn from GFT’s Cameroon textile programme annex (prepared 31 January 2024; source refresh flagged 2026). Seed cotton and ginned lint are distinct denominators. Nothing here is investment, legal or tax advice.

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