An Interview with
Bruce A. Atherley
Executive Director
Cotton Council International, U.S.A
TEXtalks: Welcome to TEXtalks International. What are the key advantages of Cotton USA?
Bruce A. Atherley: First its pleasure to be here in Pakistan, US Cotton is the cotton you can always trust. When, we talked to mill owners and manufactures who are using US cotton, what they tell us is; they can always trust the quality of US cotton. What does that mean; which primarily means is that US cotton is contamination free, consistent, uniform and what they told us over and over and it’s interesting as we met with many mills and manufactures over the last couple of days in Karachi and Lahore, they consistently said that “what you buy is what you get,, which is terrific. Which is primary advantage of buying US cotton over other countries cotton.
TEXtalks: How would you compare cotton with other natural fibers?
Bruce A. Atherley: Cotton is a wonder fiber, and why is that? Because cotton is a huge crop, it’s right now will be over 102 million bales of 480 pound per bale. So over almost 50 billion pounds of cotton fiber produced. Wool, Linen are fibers with terrific properties but they are just not as big as cotton is, so cotton is perfect in its reach, its scale is just unsurpassed in the world, in all other fibers with terrific properties as well.
TEXtalks: The share of manmade fibers is increasing with the passage of time, how do you see the survival of cotton in the coming days?
Bruce A. Atherley: It’s interesting, the share of manmade fibers has been increasing for the last 50-60 years. This is not a new phenomenon. If you go back in time, you see that again it’s been happening for a very long period of time because once upon a time before manmade fibers, cotton had a 100% except for similar manmade fibers like wool and linen. As we talk about the share, it was all cotton. I look at share, the share is important but even more important is total volume that is being done with cotton. If we look at the volume that is being done, the volume is essentially flapped. If we look at global cotton consumption of 2005-2015, it was about the same, 110-112 million bales of cotton per year. So I think it’s important to look at total volume and as long as volume continued to either be flapped or hopefully grow, then cotton would be just fine. Even, if the share will continues to decline over time.
TEXtalks: Can you pls explain about the concept behind COTTON LEADSTM program?
Bruce A. Atherley: COTTON LEADSTM is a program was started in the US approximately 10 years ago, as well recognized sustainability practices of the US growers. The US is in highly regulated agriculture business. The many views that put in place, protect the land, protect the workers, protect the water usage and because of that, our farmers are dedicated to sustainability practices. So COTTON LEADSTM was created to a way to kick that story out to brands, retailers, mill owners and manufactures. So, they knew that cotton produced in US is sustainable. If you think about it and our farmers, I have met many of US farmers, in several cases, this land they farm has been in their family for generations. This is 100 of years old and it will be passed down to their sons and daughters in the future. So, their interest is in maintaining their land forever because it’s the single greatest asset. COTTON LEADSTM recognizes that and promotes the idea of US cotton sustainability around the world.
TEXtalks: How much cotton US is exporting, the yield and the average price of the US Cotton?
Bruce A. Atherley: In the next marketing year which already started in August first, US will export approximately Twelve million bales of raw fibers and as I said 480 pound bales which is different from the Pakistani bales. We will also export another three and a half million bales of yarn from the US. So, in total, more probably around Fifteen and half million of bales of cotton, depending on three things, the final crop actually harvested in the US, as US is in the middle of just harvesting the crop right now so we see how the weather turns out, and of course you know demands and finally pricing.
The yields vary greatly between the regions of US where cotton is growing, ranging from California to Texas to the Carolina to the south. I think, an average yield would be somewhere around 800 pounds per acre. In terms of pricing, the price, this year has ranged between 60 and 75 cents of the cottonA index. And people ask me all the time that where is the price going and I tell them every time that if I knew that, I would be a billionaire.
TEXtalks: How do you see the scope of US cotton for Pakistan?
Bruce A. Atherley: I am very excited about the opportunities for US cotton in Pakistan. We have many great customers here already, those customers talk about the advantages of US cotton. As I said earlier, most of those things that I told about US Cotton came from the mouths of the people here in Pakistan, who are using US cotton. If, we look to the future, it’s interesting. Last year, we sold 424 thousand bales of US cotton in our marketing year, in Pakistan. This year, we have already sold 470 thousand bales of US cotton. So it’s already up over the entire annual total of last year. So as Pakistani textiles industry continues to grow, I think so much as I have heard this week everybody will bullish on the textile sector to continue growing in the Pakistan, US cotton can continue to grow along with it. Hopefully, we could at least double our exports to Pakistan over the next few years.
TEXtalks: The quality, fiber length and the yield of US Cotton is on higher end than Pakistani cotton, if you see any chances of cooperation to upgrade these over here?
Bruce A. Atherley: US is very much willing to share technology and the best practices with the world. If you see about the USTA classing system, Permanent Bale Identification which we call PBI or green card system that are the systems developed by the USTA in the US then we export it to the rest of the world and I think with growing best practices, we absolutely would like to share. Cotton USA sponsors executive delegations, people from every segment, including our producers, we talk about what they do and about the reforms. So, we absolutely willing to share with Pakistani producers to improve their yields and their crops.
