International Cotton Standards Activities

The 28^th Triennial Universal Cotton Standards Conference was held on June 11-13, 2008 in Memphis, TN. Approximately 200 delegates and guests were present to consider proposals and to review the 2008 Universal Cotton Standards. A proposal to allow expanded international representation into the Universal Cotton Standards Agreement was adopted.

 

Standardization of instrument based cotton classification continues to be promoted through the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC). The ICAC’s Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC) Task Force continues to play a very active promotion role through the increasingly popular CSITC Round Test which currently has participants from 60 testing centers in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

 

Developing a commercially sound measurement for short fiber content is a top priority for cotton quality testing. A large scale study is underway between collaborators within CSITC, the USDA and China to develop acceptable reference standards as a basis for measuring short fiber content.