Mao Kailin: Selling American Cotton To The World

China, once a net exporter of soybeans, has increased its soybean imports in recent years and has become an importer of soybeans.

For many years, China has always been a cotton producing country. Is that really true? What can we learn from the "cotton school" organized by the international cotton association of the United States?

Sponsored by the Cotton Council International (CCI), the third "cotton school" for two days was held on 22-23 April 2010 in Haikou, Hainan.

More than 150 business representatives from more than 80 cotton spinning enterprises in the whole country have systematically studied and discussed a whole supply chain such as planting, production, technology, circulation and risk management.

The participating companies include famous enterprises such as Baron East Limited and many small and medium-sized cotton textile enterprises.

Cotton yarn production is the foundation of textile production, and cotton procurement is the most important link in cotton yarn production.

For many years, the world's importers of raw cotton will send their main staff to the United States to receive training in all kinds of "cotton schools".

The United States International Cotton Association is one of the export promotion organizations in the US cotton industry. It attaches great importance to the long-term cooperative relationship between the international cotton traders, cooperatives and cotton mills in China. In order to enable Chinese cotton textile enterprises to get the same training and buy more suitable cotton, a cotton school is held in China every two years. Through the seminars and seminars, the buyers of China's cotton importing enterprises are introduced to introduce the status of the cotton industry in the United States, and help Chinese enterprises understand the United States cotton comprehensively and comprehensively from the contents of the American cotton variety, trade mode, contract signing and raw cotton purchase.

Since its first launch in 2006, the "cotton school" has been held in China for the three time, becoming one of the most influential brand activities of the US International Cotton Association in China.

At present, China's textile industry is vigorously promoting the high value-added products, and more and more enterprises are improving their added value through good quality and brand strategy. This trend has also increased the demand for high-grade cotton raw materials by the dominant enterprises in the industry.

Puma cotton is the highest grade and best quality cotton in the United States. Its fiber length and color are good, and has formed brand advantage in the industry.

This meeting specially invited the president of the Supima association to give a special lecture to answer the customers' needs and questions about Puma cotton.

In addition, technical experts from the US Cotton Corp bring the most advanced technology development trend in the field of textile, and introduce how to use advanced technology to improve product grades, such as waterproof treatment technology for fabrics, functional finishing technology, etc.

The cotton school is chaired by Ms. Mao Kailin, Chinese director of the international cotton association of America. It is mainly composed of experts from the US Department of agriculture, the American cotton merchants association, the national cotton Federation, the US cotton supply and marketing cooperative, the New York cotton exchange, the American Supima Association and the us Cotton Corp.

As the head of the international cotton association of China, Ms. Mao Kailin carefully organized and organized this event. At the opening ceremony, she said, "the global economic dynamics have changed frequently in recent years. The United States International Cotton Association has been maintaining and deepening the exchange with the American Cotton Association and the delegation of the China Cotton Association. The two sides have a better understanding of the cotton industry in both countries.

This year, our cotton school also needs to update and upgrade teaching contents to reflect the new situation of the global cotton and cotton textile market.

In this year's curriculum, on the basis of maintaining the original course content, we have added specific contents to help us cotton users to sign contracts with cotton merchants.

We invited the experts from the United States to conduct lectures on world themes from the macro and micro perspectives, covering almost all the common problems raised by the US cotton users: the 2010 cotton planting situation in the United States; the detailed classification system of the US cotton; the introduction of the whole cotton logistics from harvesting to testing; the risk management of cotton spinning enterprises; the global supply chain of COTTON USA; the general situation of the American Supima Association; the Cotton Corp technology and the American consumer market.

The United States is currently the second largest cotton producer in the world and the largest exporter of cotton in the world.

Because each state has its unique climate, the output of cotton has its own characteristics, which is why the United States can produce all kinds of different types of cotton.

At the same time, technological innovation in the cotton industry in the United States has also led to an improvement in the quality of the global cotton textile and manufacturing industry.

Technically, the cotton industry in the United States is the most developed in the world, from planting to pumping to textile. The United States produces three types of cotton fiber: short fiber, long fiber and super long fiber.

According to Ms. Mao Kailin, the activities of the US International Cotton Association in China began in 1987. First, an office was opened in Hongkong. The main task at that time was to communicate with the government departments responsible for cotton trade in China to understand the needs of Chinese textile industry and consumers.

As China's largest cotton consumer in the world, CCI has already prepared for the development of the Chinese market. In the annual global fashion surveillance survey launched in 2004, it first covered the Chinese mainland market and concluded that the Chinese consumption concept was very advanced.

CCI has made a prediction that natural cotton fabrics will become the mainstream of the market in China. The fashion design oriented high quality pure cotton fashion will become the dominant fashion in China.

According to the survey, 82% of Chinese respondents expressed willingness to pay more money for the purchase of natural cotton and woollen fabrics, ranking first among the countries and regions surveyed.

Although there are still a lot of space in the clothing market of the mainland of China, the demand for high quality natural fabrics is more urgent than that of other countries and regions.

The international cotton association of the United States has been carrying out a market project aimed at promoting the global cotton market rapidly, and plans to rapidly increase the utilization rate of American cotton in clothing and home textiles in the next few years.

The logo "COTTON USATM" is freely awarded to those products that contain at least 50% of American cotton products. While promoting American cotton, it also enhances the popularity of American pure cotton products and establishes a high-end brand image for these products.

According to a survey conducted by the international cotton association in Asia, about 66% of the 15-34 year old women know the "COTTON USATM" logo. Globally, the popularity of the "COTTON USATM" logo is about 52%.

All these are closely linked with the efforts of the international cotton association of the United States.

Our strategy in the Chinese market is long-term and omni-directional, serving Chinese textile enterprises, international textile buyers and ordinary consumers.

Mao Kailin said: "my job in China is to find more manufacturers using the" COTTON USATM "certification mark, to introduce the buyer to the seller is the expertise of CCI. CCI can help the sale of Chinese American made cotton products in various trade exhibitions and product promotion channels by means of the supply chain market development, and enhance the strong competitiveness of the US cotton users in the Chinese market and international market.

Mao Kailin believes that this work will enhance the visibility and sales volume of Chinese cotton products in the international market.

Links:

Overview of major cotton brands in the US

Upland cotton:

According to the cotton project of the Department of Agriculture Extension Service (AMS) of the US Department of agriculture, the "Deltapine" brand of upland cotton seed is the most widely planted cottonseed in the 2009/2010 cotton year of the United States, accounting for 39.32% of the total planting area.

Bayer crop science company's "FiberMax" brand cotton planting area ranks second, accounting for 34.5% of the total planting area.

Bayer crop science company's "Stoneville" brand is the third best seller, accounting for 11.5% of the total cotton planting area.

"Phytogen" brand cotton seed is the fourth best seller, accounting for 7.2% of the total cotton planting area.

In addition to the above four brands, "Americot", "All-Tex" and "Dyna-gro" rank five to seven.

Puma cotton (Supima):

Puma cotton is the highest grade and best quality cotton in the United States, with long fiber and good color. It focuses on the high-end market of spinning mills, knitting mills, fabric factories and garment factories.

At present, Puma cotton has gained a high reputation in the field of clothing.

Some top brands have launched Puma cotton high-end clothing, such as Brooks Brothers, Tommy Bahama, James Perse, Agave Denimsmith and so on.

"Phytogen" cotton seed is the best selling brand of Puma cotton cotton seed in 2009.

PHY800 Puma cotton accounts for 40.1% of the total Puma cotton planting area in the United States.

Deltapine brand DP340 DP340 cotton seed is the second best seller, accounting for 24.2% of the total planting area, and third of the best sellers are "Phytogen" PHY830, accounting for 17.9%.

US cotton procurement guide

There are two main categories of American cotton suppliers most likely to be exposed by foreign textile enterprises, namely, American cotton merchants (members of the American cotton Merchants Association) and the United States cotton supply and Marketing Cooperative (members of the US cotton cooperative).

American Cotton Traders refer to private Cotton Corp that buy cotton and sell them to foreign textile mills.

The United States cotton supply and marketing cooperative is an organization of cotton growers. Its main function is to sell cotton produced by their members to foreign textile factories.

American cotton exporters sell cotton to foreign markets through international agents, foreign cotton traders / importers, and directly sell to textile mills in three ways.

Among these three methods, selling through local agents is the most common one.

The cotton agent is a bridge connecting exporters and manufacturers. It represents exporters to negotiate, monitor the opening of letters of credit, progress and inform manufacturers of freight forwarding.

For various reasons, direct trade between exporters and textile mills is not very common. Some foreign importers are more willing to trade directly with cotton traders.