The SOSUCO (Société Sucrière de la Comoé) plantation is the reason Banfora exists in its current form — a 4,000-hectare estate of sugarcane that sprawls north and east of the town, with a refinery, narrow-gauge railway, and worker housing all of its own. It is one of the largest sugar operations in West Africa and provides much of the country's domestic sugar supply.
The plantation is not officially open to tourism, but you cannot avoid it: every road out of Banfora cuts through cane fields, and the harvest narrow-gauge railway crosses the Bobo-Banfora road at two unmarked level crossings. In harvest season (October to March) the smell of molasses drifts across the town from the refinery. Ask at the SOSUCO office in town if you want to arrange a visit; otherwise just take in the scale of it as you drive past.