COTTON USA's 42nd tour attracts global textile leaders

Sponsored by Cotton Council International (CCI), the export promotions arm of the Memphis-based National Cotton Council (NCC), the Orientation Tour’s major objectives are to increase US cotton customers’ awareness of the types/qualities of US cotton, help them gain a better understanding of US marketing practices and enhance their relationships with US exporters. More than 900 textile executives from more than 60 countries have participated in this biennial tour initiated in 1968, COTTON USA said in a press release.

“The COTTON USA Orientation Tour is vital to US cotton export performance. For over half a century, this event has enabled our industry to showcase our high-quality US cotton fibre to important international spinners as well as build and strengthen relationships with these customers,” said CCI president Steve Dyer, a Cordova, Tennessee, merchant.

This year’s Orientation Tour includes executives representing 27 companies in Bangladesh, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkiye, and Vietnam. These manufacturers expect to consume 5.7 million bales of cotton in 2023, while an estimated 2.9 million bales of US cotton will be exported to those countries. This represents about 23 per cent of US cotton export sales, making these companies some of US cotton’s largest customers.

The Orientation Tour participants will visit a Mid-South cotton farm and gin; tour a farm and cotton warehouse in Texas; tour a Pima cotton farm in California; observe cotton research in North Carolina and Mississippi, and tour the USDA cotton classing office in Bartlett, Tennessee. They will meet with US cotton exporters and get briefings from CCI, the NCC, Cotton Incorporated, ACSA, the Texas Cotton Association, the Lubbock Cotton Exchange, Amcot, the American Cotton Producers, the Delta Council, Plains Cotton Growers, Inc, the Western Cotton Shippers Association, and Supima.

The meetings will offer ample opportunities for US cotton industry representatives to strengthen relationships with some of US cotton’s top customers and impact export sales, the release added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)