The Cotton Price Stabilization Board (French: ''Caisse de Stabilisation des Prix du Coton'', CSPC) was a
Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Repub ...
ian governative board created in 1965. Its task was to stabilize prices paid to peasant producers by funding operating losses incurred by
Cotontchad
The Société cotonnière du Tchad, also called Cotontchad, is a parastatal Chad, Chadian company operating in a monopoly regime that buys and exports all the cotton produced in Chad. Cotton represents 40% of the country's exports and in past year ...
, the parastatal giant that bought, ginned and sold all the
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor p ...
produced in Chad. The CSPC also played an important role in the program to improve yields: it is estimated that between 1971 and 1983 57% of all payments by the CSPC were made in conjunction with the program to improve cotton production. As for the funding of the CSPC, between 1971 and 1983, virtually all income to the CSPC derived from rebates paid by Cotontchad into the system. After 1984 the sharply reduced income of Cotontchad made the system for paying the producers heavily dependent on external sources of funds (such as
Stabex
The Stabex (from French ''Système de Stabilisation des Recettes d'Exportation'') is the acronym for a European Commission compensatory finance scheme to stabilise export earnings of the ACP countries. It was first introduced in the first Lomé Co ...
), while the government completely exempted Cotontchad from the rebates to the CSPC. The difficulties of the CSPC, whose staffs had already been considerably reduced in the late 1980s, came to a head with the great recession that hit the cotton market between 1991 and 1993, leading to the abolition of the board in 1993. It was decided to let the prices paid to the producers fluctuate freely, following the international price of cotton.
References
1965 in Chad
Economy of Chad
Agricultural organisations based in Chad
Agricultural economics
Cotton organizations
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