US cotton bodies pledge to support CCI activities

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.”

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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.