The Certified Cotton Gin Program is an information conduit allowing cotton buyers to view information about bales not found in traditional sources such as USDA grade sheets. This program acknowledges the negative and emphasizes the positive effects a gin can have on a bale’s quality and therefore its value. The program was chartered in early 2006 in response to millions of bales being subjected to damaging water spray lint moisture restoration devices around the world. The majority of damaged bales are not discovered until months after they had been ginned and had no unusual grade sheet data. Buyers can have confidence that bales purchased from Certified Gins have not been subjected to water spray devices or other known detrimental ginning practices such as mote reclamation or using excessive drying temperatures.

Beyond the strict set of guidelines avoiding harmful ginning practices, some Certified Gins have elected to promote additional practices they are doing to preserve fiber quality. These practices include drying seed cotton with low temperatures, monitoring and controlling moisture throughout the gin process, applying humid air to seed cotton to protect brittle fiber as it is ginned, using humid air to restore moisture to lint in a safe manner, and some gins even have all of this information documented by permanent bale identification. While the majority of gins do not meet the guidelines avoiding detrimental ginning practices, even fewer gins have documented information outlining the quality ginning practices they perform. Textile mills buying bales from these gins should expect more efficient and predictable processing.     

In the current global market, a buyer cannot have too much information about the cotton they buy. As the information the Program provides is currently free and unavailable anywhere else, buyers should use it to make better buying decisions, avoid problem bales, and protect their bottom line.