Global Spinners Group Tours U.S. Cotton Operations
September 25, 2015 Six members of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) Spinners Committee visited various U.S. cotton operations and research facilities in mid-September, following the ITMF’s Annual Conference in San Francisco.
The National Cotton Council (NCC) served as one of the Conference’s hosts and helped arrange tour stops for these textile officials from Austria, Switzerland, South Africa, Indonesia and China.
The Spinners Committee members began their tour with a visit to the J.G. Boswell farming operation in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
In West Texas, the group toured Lubbock area cotton farms, where they were hosted by Cotton Council International President Dahlen Hancock. They also visited Lubbock Cotton Growers Gin, Farmers Cooperative Compress, Plains Cotton Cooperative Association, the Fiber & Biopolymer Research Institute at Texas Tech University and USDA’s South Plains Ginning Laboratory.
In Mississippi, the Committee members met with NCC Chairman Sledge Taylor and toured his farm and gin in Como. They later visited Staplcotn’s warehouse in West Memphis, AR, where they were hosted by NCC Vice Chairman Shane Stephens. While in the Memphis area, they visited with officials from Allenberg Cotton Company, toured the USDA classing office and participated in a seminar at the NCC’s headquarters.
In Georgia, the group met with former NCC Chairman Chuck Coley and toured his farming, ginning and warehousing operations in Vienna. Richey Seaton, executive director of the Georgia Cotton Commission, accompanied the group on a visit he arranged to the University of Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station in Tifton. Committee members were updated on the many areas of cotton research being done at that facility relating to fiber quality, among them breeding, physiology and crop management.
During their tour across the Cotton Belt, the Spinners Committee members also had meetings with representatives of area cotton merchandisers in Lubbock, Memphis and Fresno, CA.
The ITMF is an international forum for the world’s textile industries, dedicated to keeping its global membership informed through surveys, studies and publications; participating in the evolution of the industry’s value chain and through the organization of annual conferences; and publishing considered opinions on future trends and international developments.
ITMF’s Spinner Committee, constituted in 1985 with the intention of creating a strong spinners’ voice in all matters of interest to the global cotton industry, is charged with three main objectives – supporting the development of quality cotton fiber based on modern spinning requirements; providing advice relating to the harvesting, handling, ginning, and contracting of cotton; and promoting the mechanical testing of raw cotton.
More information about ITMF is available at the organization’s website.
Source – National Cotton Council
GET THE NEWSLETTER TODAY!
