Cotton Council International (CCI) joined the global cotton community in celebrating World Cotton Day on Oct. 7. Recently announced as an official day on the United Nation’s permanent calendar, World Cotton Day brings together stakeholders from across the industry to celebrate the global importance of cotton. To celebrate, CCI hosted a global, virtual event highlighting this year’s theme: “Cotton For Good.”
The event featured notable speakers from around the world such as Maxine Bédat, Director of New Standard Institute; Kai Hughes, Executive Director of the International Cotton Advisory Committee; Alan McClay, CEO of Better Cotton Initiative; Bruce Atherley, Executive Director of CCI; Marco Mtunga, President of the African Cotton Association; Manek Gupta, Managing Director of Viterra India; and Bert Jacobs, CEO and Co-Founder of Life is Good.
The presentations highlighted not only the economic importance of cotton, providing hundreds of millions of jobs around the world, but also the environmental advantage of cotton as a sustainable, natural fiber. Participants learned how practices such as precision agriculture and a commitment to continuous improvement are enabling the U.S. cotton industry to lead the global effort in key sustainability metrics and how the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol is setting a new standard for sustainably grown cotton.
CCI also joined other celebrations around the world in India and Bangladesh by participating in informational webinars and radio campaigns promoting cotton and COTTON USA. In Latin America, COTTON USA licensees and U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol members promoted World Cotton Day on their social media channels, encouraging their customers to learn more about the programs and “Cotton For Good.” For those who were unable to join, a recording of the global World Cotton Day event can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/S_FwZKc-bg8.