Giving Meaning to “Value-Added”
March 17, 2010 FiberMax® cotton seed was introduced in the U.S. in 1998, and within five years, mills were requesting FiberMax cotton by name. In 2003, Bayer CropScience launched the Certified FiberMax Cotton® program in the U.S. to help ensure product integrity, take advantage of potential downstream demand, generate pull-through programming and provide brand protection.
Since its inception, the Certified FiberMax program has evolved to focus on creating demand and market access for fiber grown from our cotton seed brand, as well as for textile products made from that fiber. Today, Certified FiberMax programs have also been implemented in Brazil and Turkey, and we continue working to promote Certified FiberMax Cotton at the merchant, mill, textile development and retail levels in cotton-consuming countries around the world.
The Value Scale
During this global implementation process, we’ve held seminars and meetings with global textile mills and have observed some critical changes taking place in the industry. Understanding and reacting to these changes will be a critical factor in keeping cotton viable in the world market. The most critical message we’ve learned is that quality matters more than ever.
In October 2009, Bayer CropScience held fiber quality meetings in Turkey, India, China, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh after having met with mill and textile leaders from Malaysia, Pakistan, Japan, Vietnam and Singapore in previous years. In each of these countries, the majority of mills expressed an ambition to move up on the value scale for the textile products they produce. Their goal to manufacture higher-value, finer-count yarns and higher-quality end products means that fiber quality in raw cotton purchases becomes increasingly important.
Cotton export data corroborates this trend. U.S. exports of all cotton have declined consistently for the last three years, and the decline continued into 2009 (see Table I). U.S. upland cotton exports in 2008 were close to 1.6 million bales below the three-year average from 2005 through 2007.
However, not all export statistics are so grim. While total U.S. upland cotton exports have continued to decline, exports of higher-quality U.S. upland cotton have actually increased. The export census data classifies upland cotton into high, medium and low quality based on staple length, with cotton of 36 staple and longer categorized as high-quality. Table II presents the export statistics for high-quality U.S. upland cotton for the last several years. Total U.S. exports of high-quality upland cotton in 2008 were 1.45 million bales greater than the three-year average from 2005 to 2007. Although reporting and compiling export statistics lag several months behind, available data from 2009 suggests this trend has continued.
Increased higher-quality exports to China are largely responsible for this trend, but most of the top importing customers for U.S. cotton also have trended toward increased purchases of high-end upland cotton. Table III presents the imports of high-end U.S. upland cotton by the five leading importers from 2005 through 2008. These trends are also continuing in 2009 based on the limited data available.
These statistics support the need for continued attention to cotton fiber quality. Technology and innovations in many forms have kept cotton competitive as a fiber despite changing economic environments. For cotton to remain competitive, we must continue providing a high-quality product — beginning in the field and factory and continuing to the retail level.
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