Founded in 1957 in Lausanne, Switzerland, CDI was originally one of various international companies belonging to the MUSTAKI family. From its inception, CDI benefited from the contacts, expertise and financial means of the group which for more than a century dealt not only in raw cotton but also in other commodities, consumer and capital goods, financial operations and barters. More recently, CDI has regrouped the cotton activities of its sister companies. CDI was initially very active in merchandising raw cotton from Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania. We then extended our activities to French speaking West African countries, starting with Benin in 1972. In 1985 we became a selling agent for Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso raw cotton. In this capacity, we were successful in opening new outlets for cotton originating from these countries and we have now been trading in cotton from these geographies for more than 10 years. During the past twenty years, CDI has continued to develop its activities in South American countries, including MERCOSUR countries and also Andean and Caribbean countries. At the beginning of 1999, the company was purchased by four members of the management team (Management Buy Out). Three of whom retired in 2004, 2011 and 2015. It is now held by Laurent Peyre who is active in the managing of the company.