BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali raw cotton output will total 230,000 tonnes during the 2009-10 season, the state run Mali Textile Development Company (CMDT) said on Wednesday 21 April in its third consecutive forecast cut.

The previous projection, set in October, was for 236,400 tonnes during the November-through-April marketing season.

"Given the recent polls and based on purchases (by textile manufacturers), we believe output will reach 98 percent of our forecast," said CMDT official Ousmane Nouhoum Traore.

Last June, Mali forecast production during the 2009-10 season would reach 330,000 tonnes, but cut back the projection in July to 250,000 tonnes due to poor rains, and then trimmed it yet again in October to 236,400 tonnes.

Despite the back-to-back downward revisions, output is still on track to beat last season's 210,000 tonnes.

Cotton production in the West African desert nation, among the poorest in the world, has dropped by more than half in the last five years as farmers turn to more lucrative crops like corn and rice.