Its total privatization has been required by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 1997 but rejected by the peasants, resulting in partial privatization. The World Bank wanted privatization to be accompanied by opening the market to competition 1. But other specialists advised preserving the integrity of the sector, with as main shareholder the CFDT, technical partner of Sodecoton for decades.

Having become a quasi-private enterprise, holding a quasi-monopoly of the cotton market in Cameroon, Sodecoton no longer has any cotton plantations but works in partnership with Cameroonian producers. In 2003 Sodecoton was the third company in Cameroon after Sonara and Breweries of Cameroon. It was also ranked 8th among the best performing African companies. On the side of its outlets, it suffered from the impact of GMOs on its exports and little diversified its customers, who remained essentially local producers. It has thus suffered the fall of Cameroonian textile production. Between 2005 and 2008, local consumption of raw cotton increased from 189 000 t / year to 40 000 t / year, a fall of nearly 78% 2.