Ten US cotton organisations have pledged industry
contributions in 2018 to support the demand-building activities of Cotton
Council International (CCI), the National Cotton Council’s (NCC) export
promotion arm, headquartered in Washington, D.C. The cotton industry
contributions to Cotton USA play critical role in developing export markets.
The ten organisations that have pledged to support CCI activities are the
National Cotton Council; Cotton Incorporated; American Cotton Shippers
Association; AMCOT; California Cotton Alliance; the Committee for Cotton
Research; ICE Futures U.S.; Plains Cotton Growers, Inc.; Southern Cotton
Growers, Inc.; and Supima.“Our growers believe that contributing to CCI
is an investment in the future of our industry and ultimately is essential to
our success,” Plains Cotton Growers executive vice president Steve Verett said
in a weekly newsletter of Cotton USA. “The work they do is vital to helping
ensure that the rest of the world knows why US cotton is a superior product and
worthy of sourcing. The fact that 80 percent of US cotton is exported
highlights the critical need for a healthy export market.”
US cotton industry contributions help CCI to build
export markets for US cotton fibre, yarn and other cotton products, and are an
invaluable supplement to the funding from the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural
Service’s Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD)
programme.CCI is the largest recipient of MAP and FMD funding to promote
US cotton overseas. Its use of funds from USDA and US cotton organisations has
enabled it to build cotton exports and to improve the economic returns of
18,500 cotton farms in the United States.
Export markets are critical to the US cotton
industry, as nearly all cotton grown in the United States is exported either in
the form of fibre or cotton yarn. Currently, the US is the leading exporter of
cotton fibre in the world with a 39 percent global share, more than three times
the share of any other country. In the 2016 marketing year, the US cotton
industry exported 18.4 million bales of raw cotton and cotton textiles.
Source: CNBC Africa, U.S.A Wednesday, 24 January 2018