MEMPHIS, Tenn. — April 28, 2011 — Eleven textile industry leaders from Turkey will tour the
U.S. Cotton Belt on May 7-17 as part of a COTTON USA Special Trade Mission. The event, sponsored by
the National Cotton Council’s (NCC) export promotions arm, Cotton Council International (CCI), is
designed to build trading ties between the U.S. cotton industry and textile industry leaders from
key Turkish mills.
“These textile executives will view the advanced state of the U.S. industry and have the
opportunity to meet with U.S. cotton exporters and other industry leaders,” said CCI President John
D. Mitchell, a Cordova, TN, merchant. “This is an important opportunity for U.S. cotton because the
individual mills on the tour consume a total of more than 570,000 bales, with U.S. imports of about
345,000 bales.
Mitchell noted that Turkey is: 1) the world’s fourth largest cotton consumer with an
estimated total domestic consumption of 5.9 million bales in 2010-11; 2) the world’s third largest
importer of cotton, with 3.2 million bales estimated for 2010-11; and 3) the second largest
customer of U.S. cotton — with the 2.2 million plus bales of U.S. cotton that country already has
imported in the 2010-11 year exceeding their total 2009-10 U.S.cotton imports of 2.2 million bales.
The Turkish group will begin their U.S. tour activities in New York City with a briefing from
CCI on May 8 and a seminar with ICE Futures on May 9. Later that day in Raleigh, NC, they will meet
with representatives of AMCOT, the Southern Cotton Growers, Inc. and Cotton Incorporated, whose
headquarters in nearby Cary they will tour the next day.
After attending the American Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA) annual meeting in Washington,
DC, on May 11, the group will travel to Memphis where they will tour the USDA classing office and
have meetings with NCC staff at its headquarters offices and with AMCOT. On May 13, the contingent
will be in Lubbock, TX, for a meeting with the Lubbock Cotton Exchange, AMCOT, the Texas Cotton
Association and Plains Cotton Growers, Inc. The tour will conclude in California with a May 16
meeting in Bakersfield with the Western Cotton Shippers Association, AMCOT, the San Joaquin Valley
Quality Cotton Growers Association and Supima.
The mills represented on the tour are Abateks, Aral Tekstil, Bossa, Gap Guneydogu, HasCevher,
Ilsan, Karacasu, Malatya Iplik, Markeks, Mina Texstil and Ozcicek.
Posted on May 6, 2011
Source: Cotton Council International
