Studies Will Guide U.S. Cotton in the 21st Century
February 9, 2011 Global demand for cotton and cotton products is experiencing an upturn, along with a need to refill fiber and textile pipelines worldwide.
The National Cotton Council’s (NCC) export promotions arm, Cotton Council International (CCI), is working closely with its partners and licensees throughout the global cotton supply chain to strengthen demand for cotton and U.S. cotton products worldwide. Its objectives are to help spinners understand the benefits of sourcing raw cotton fiber from the United States, and to increase demand for U.S. cotton throughout the supply chain.
The initial focus is to promote U.S. cotton yarns and textiles through CCI’s COTTON USA Sourcing Program, in which 11 U.S. mills participated during 2010.
Next, the COTTON USA Supply Chain Marketing (SCM) program will facilitate business relationships and information exchange between the U.S. cotton-rich textile industry and garment manufacturing companies worldwide.
At the crucial endpoint of the supply chain is consumer demand, which helps pull U.S. cotton through the system. CCI’s COTTON USA Mark licensing and promotion program, now with 510 company licensees, favorably positions U.S. cotton with consumers. In addition to COTTON USA-branded promotions, CCI will continue to conduct generic promotions of cotton to instill a preference in consumers.
NCC is committed to helping CCI carry out its innovative programs. Included in this commitment is a visionary effort undertaken in 2009 that will culminate in 2011 with the establishment of initiatives designed to capitalize on strong consumer demand: an initiative called the “Vision of U.S. Cotton’s 21st Century.”
A vision for the future
The initiative is a comprehensive data collection and analysis effort aimed at strengthening U.S. cotton’s competitiveness in the global marketplace. Created by the Cotton Foundation, managed jointly by NCC, CCI and Cotton Incorporated, and underwritten by a grant from Monsanto (with additional funding from John Deere), “Vision 21” analyzes cotton handling/transportation logistics with a focus on improving flow/shipping; conducts life-cycle studies to strengthen U.S. cotton’s sustainability message, and assesses cotton textiles’ fastest-growing consumer markets. The sustainability study led to four goals:
1 Build a life cycle inventory (LCI) for cotton products that can be easily integrated into both proprietary and open source Life Cycle Analysis software tools,
2 Identify currently available LCI data for cotton, rayon, and virgin and recycled polyester, and provide a quality assessment of that data,
3 Provide a life cycle analysis of textile products constructed from cotton and those fibers identified in the second goal, and
4 Deliver a user-friendly software tool that can be used for additional scenario analysis and product comparisons.
Following completion of the Vision 21 project, the industry’s stakeholders will meet to develop new NCC policies and program initiatives that will serve to help guide CCI’s efforts to build new markets and direct Cotton Foundation resources to achieve industry profitability and efficiency. The project’s funding partners will be participants in the stakeholder discussions.
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