Textile manufacturers from Pakistan tour cotton grading facility in Bartlett
A group of more than a dozen textile executives from Pakistan visited Bartlett on Tuesday for a tour of the facility where the USDA tests and grades cotton bales.
The visit is part of a larger special trade mission from Cotton Council International, the National Cotton Council’s exports promotion arm, that will take the group to tour several locations around the country, central to the U.S. cotton industry.
The mission began with a farm visit and introduction in Savannah, Georgia, before the executives traveled to the Bartlett Classing Office for a presentation on how the USDA operates its cotton classing facilities.
The goal of the program is to increase exports in Pakistan by demonstrating the quality of U.S. cotton production.
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“We feel that seeing is believing, and if they can come and see what we do here, meet our growers, our ginners, our warehousemen, our traders, they will have confidence in the U.S. cotton industry,” said Vaughn Jordan, deputy director of Cotton Council International.
Beginning with a presentation on the facility’s procedures and technology, the tour focused on the USDA’s move to using primarily automated high-volume precision instruments, rather than relying on the slower and less accurate methods of classing cotton by hand. Cotton gins send 8-ounce samples to the office, which are loaded onto conveyer belts, conditioned to the best humidity for accurate results and tested for various characteristics like fiber length and strength.
Nearly all cotton in the U.S. is classed by the USDA in such facilities, which has helped make the U.S. one of the top exporters of cotton in the world, producing over 17 million bales between August 2021 and July 2022, per USDA production, supply and distribution statistics.
For the textile industry in Pakistan, finding a large supplier of cotton imports is essential with the country’s cotton production levels threatened by the effects of climate change. According to a USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report in 2021, those levels are at a historic low, the demand of textile manufacturers double what the country's farms are able to supply.
“I think it’s a great opportunity between our countries,” said Kamran Arshad, managing director of Ghazi Fabrics International and one of the participating executives. “America has a lot of cotton export; Pakistan has a lot of cotton to buy and import. It’s a win-win situation.”
Following their stay in Memphis, the group will tour gins and warehouses and meet with exporters in Harlingen and Lubbock, Texas, as well as Visalia, California.
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The executives have already shown an interest in the quality of U.S. cotton product, impressed by the USDA’s rigorous testing standards.
“As far as the U.S. classing facility’s concerned, the testing facilities, the bale identification, that is beyond par excellence,” said Arshad. “And no other country in the world has that yet.”
Niki Scheinberg is a reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at monika.scheinberg@commercialappeal.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: USDA cotton grading office in Bartlett hosts Pakistan textile execs
