Cotton is the most important natural fibre in the fashion and textile industry. The cultivation of cotton offers a subsistence, if not a basis of life, for countless people around the world. To highlight this, the United Nations launched World Cotton Day in 2021, a feast day that has since taken place annually on October 7th. Cotton production comes into focus all over the world on this day.
Bremen Cotton Exchange © Bremen
Cotton Exchange.
The Bremen-based Cotton Exchange would like to celebrate the day initiated by the United Nations together with the international cotton community. The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) and the International Trade Center are other globally networked organisations involved.
Importance of Cotton for the Economy, for Trade and Poverty Reduction
“We want to increase the visibility of the cotton sector in the textile chain. At the same time, we are focusing on the importance of cotton for a country’s economy, on the international trade and on the fight against poverty,” says Jean-Paul Haessig, President of the Bremen Cotton Exchange. “We want to make people realise that a large proportion of high-quality cotton originates from developing countries. There, cotton growing makes a crucial contribution to livelihoods. Every single piece of cotton textile deserves our appreciation, because many people from all over the world are behind it with their own hands´ work.”
Cotton Protects
Cotton is one of the most commonly used fibres for the fabrics in our wardrobes. It is comfortable, breathable, very durable and biodegradable. Who does not know cotton T-shirts, cotton shirts and the absolute star among textiles, jeans? Moreover, we find cotton in fluffy towels, curtain fabrics, bed linen and in many other products right up to skin cream. The valuable oil can be extracted from the seeds of the plant and is used in the cosmetics and food industries.
Matanya Zuntz,
Cotton Feeds
However, cotton, the most important natural fibre in the textile sector, is much more than just a raw material for fashion, textiles and other goods. Cotton is also an agricultural product that forms the basis of livelihood for many people.
Around 150 million people in almost 80 countries on five continents earn their living in one way or another from growing cotton and from preparing it for the textile chain. This means that every piece of cotton clothing begins with the personal story of a farmer.
Cotton Ensures Economic Development.
Cotton is already an important product for developed economies, but for the least developed countries it is a safety net. Cotton provides employment and income in some of the poorest rural areas in the world. For many small farmers, cotton is an important source of life and income. Around the equator in semi-arid regions, where hardly any other crop can be grown with economic success, cotton grows as a cash crop.
World Cotton Day Initiated by the African “Cotton Four”
World Cotton Day aims to highlight the importance of sustained, integrative and sustainable economic growth, of productive and full employment and of decent work for all. The idea was born in 2019, when four cotton producers from sub-Saharan Africa – Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali, known as the “Cotton Four” – proposed to the World Trade Organisation to celebrate World Cotton Day on October 7th. The need for a fair international cotton trade should be remembered as well.
