Series of COTTON USA™ Technical Seminars in Latin America Leads to Expected Sales of $162 Million Worth of U.S. Cotton

Participants who attended a series of COTTON USA SOLUTIONS™ Technical Seminars in Latin America expect to purchase an additional 350,000 bales of U.S. cotton, valued at approximately $162 million. For most of the participants, these technical seminars were their first time being introduced to COTTON USA SOLUTIONS™, a cotton consultancy from Cotton Council International (CCI) that works with spinning mills around the world, teaching them how they can increase profitability and productivity in their companies by choosing U.S. cotton.

During the series, 285 participants from 93 different companies and six countries throughout Latin America learned from COTTON USA SOLUTIONS™ mill experts how U.S. cotton can help address some of the most common issues seen in spinning mills including the impact of neps on the quality of finished products, the importance of bale management for cotton bale laydowns, and barriers to profitability. After the series, 75% of the participants said they were satisfied with the Technical Seminar series overall and 98% are likely to recommend future technical seminars to their colleagues.

Latin America has a strong tradition of loyalty to U.S. cotton and U.S. cotton products, but there has been increasing competition in the region. Over the past few years, U.S. cotton exports to the region have been challenged by other growths of cotton, such as Brazil, Mexico and West Africa, who compete with the U.S. in terms of prices and sometimes quality and availability. Because of these threats, CCI’s activities in the region center around differentiating U.S. cotton from its competitors.

Through services such as COTTON USA SOLUTIONS™, CCI helps drive exports of U.S. cotton to the region by not only educating mills/manufacturers on the advantages of U.S. cotton, but providing customized recommendations for increasing efficiency in their spinning operations. COTTON USA SOLUTIONS™ is currently the only cotton consultancy of its kind and is available exclusively to U.S. cotton customers.

As a result of attending the series of COTTON USA SOLUTIONS™ Technical Seminars in Latin America, 90% of the participants said they were likely to purchase U.S. cotton and 80% said they were likely to utilize other COTTON USA SOLUTIONS™ offerings in the future.

The series of COTTON USA SOLUTIONS™ Technical Seminars in Latin America was funded in part by the Market Access Program (MAP).