CCI has a 60-year of history and know-how, a trade association and a non-profit organization. Also, more than 50 countries are to be conducted actively. Cotton Council International EMEA Region Representative Nezihi Nezihi Aslankeser defines COTTON USA ™ as a sign of softness, strength, comfort and sustainability for consumers worldwide.
What are the fields of activity of Cotton USA?
Cotton Council International (CCI), the export promotion arm of the National Cotton Council of America (NCC), is a non-profit trade association that promotes U.S. cotton fiber and manufactured cotton products around the globe with our COTTON USA trademark. CCI has 60 years of experience promoting U.S. cotton fiber and products to trade and consumers. CCI works with spinning mills, fabric and garment manufacturers, brands, retailers, textile associations, governments and the USDA to facilitate the use of U.S. cotton. Our reach extends to more than 50 countries through 20 offices around the world.
Who do you cooperate with?
The U.S. cotton industry has a number of industry partners including governmental agencies, public companies, allied agribusiness suppliers, as well as state and national organizations. These organizations work together on research to continually improve the supply chain and production practices; promotion of new technologies and innovations throughout the supply chain and at the consumer level; and address the issue of sustainability across the supply chain.
The industry has launched the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol to provide aggregated, verifiable production data regarding sustainably grown U.S. cotton. The Protocol has hired Control Union as the third-party verifier of the production practices and the Trust Protocol recently was added to the Textile Exchange’s Preferred Fiber List.
How is Cotton USA positioned in the sector?
COTTON USA™ is “The Cotton The World Trusts” because of U.S. cotton’s sustainability, quality, premium value, innovation and transparency. The COTTON USA™ Mark is a sign of softness, strength, comfort and sustainability to consumers around the world. It identifies superior cotton products made with a majority of cotton grown in the U.S. In a recent study, the COTTON USA™ Mark was proven to add value for consumers. But even more significantly, they indicated that they would be willing to pay more for a product with the COTTON USA™ Mark rather than a generic 100% cotton logo.
At COTTON USA ™, we pride ourselves on delivering high quality, whatever cotton type you choose. We do this, from jeans to linens to the best white shirts. A comparison of the classification data of the last 10 years shows that the US cotton manufacturing industry has truly become a “one-stop” supermarket of cotton. Factories, manufacturers, brands, and retailers turn to COTTON USA ™ when they want strong, consistent and uniform fibers.
Sustainability has become a major issue especially after Covid-19. Would you provide some information on the importance of Sustainability from the perspective of COTTON USA?
We have always believed that sustainability plays a crucial role in our approach. Sustainability has indeed risen on the agenda as the world reconstructs emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic, but we have had a keen focus on responsible practices and continuous improvement for over 30 years.
We believe that all parties along the cotton supply chain have a critical role to play in reducing industry’s environmental footprint and protecting our global ecosystem. We are stewards of the land, committed to raising the bar for responsible, sustainable farming methods and safeguarding the environment for future generations. The decades-long commitment of the 18,000 cotton farms in the United States to continuous improvement is proven in their considerable collective achievements over the past 35 years. In that timeframe U.S. cotton producers have slashed water usage by 82% per bale, cut energy use by 38%, driven down greenhouse gas emissions by 30%, and reduced land use by 42% per bale. But we are not stopping there, we have set new goals for U.S. cotton by 2025, aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
What major changes have happened in the industry to be classified as ‘’Innovation in Cotton’’?
The U.S. cotton sector is possibly one of the most innovative domestic cotton industry in the world. We have always focused on integrating new techniques and technologies that have the combined benefit of protecting environmental resources and making good business sense. U.S. cotton growers are working to reduce land use through expanding precision irrigation and fertilization based on in-field measurements, utilizing big data and automation to better increase efficiency and focusing on methods to improve soil health.
More recently, U.S. cotton growers have implemented precision agriculture technologies including GPS receivers, multi-spectral images and ground-based sensors to map out soil property variations. Almost 63% of U.S. cotton growers employs some type of precision technology. U.S. growers have gone beyond technological improvements, and have implemented smart farming techniques such as wind breaks, contour farming and conservation tillage. Minimal tillage and growing winter cover crops also help improve soil health, reduce erosion (by 44% per acre) and enhance the soil’s ability to capture carbon.
We prefer talking about pandemic and its effects in a separate topic. In this period, within the impact of Covid-19, what would be the seeming effect on cotton production?
Given the current price situation and the significant drop in cotton prices as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. producers are expected to plant less cotton in 2020 as compared to last year. The 2020 planting season is still in progress, with 78% planted as of June 7. Cotton acreage is expected to range from 12.5 to 12.7 million acres, 7 – 9% lower than in 2019. While cotton prices are much lower than a year ago, prices of competing commodities are also low, resulting in a smaller reduction in U.S. cotton area. USDA will release an acreage estimate at the end of June. Producers have experienced inclement weather in several regions of the Cotton Belt that could lead to higher abandonment and/or lower yields for the 2020 crop. Based on current weather conditions, U.S. cotton production for 2020 is estimated at 18.2 – 18.4 million bales.
Anything you would like to add…
As you know, CCI’s operations for Turkey, Africa and Western Europe had been conducted by Ms. Marsha Powell for a long time. However, she decided to retire this year and I took over the operations as of April. Marsha herself has been very experienced in the cotton sector thanks to her long-term studies, both with U.S. cotton sector, and with the U.S. cotton yarn industry in Turkey as well. I wish Marsha happy and healthy days for her life and retirement.
