Cotton Contamination data AnalysesQuantification and highlight the presence of contamination cotton.

Data from the ITMF Survey, ©2009 Cotton Catchment Communities CRC, ITC Cotton Guide and USDA-Foreign Agriculture Service .

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Degrees of contamination

Raw cotton bales from different countries differ in the degree of contamination, which it can be classified into three different groups:

• Group I – with low contamination•Groups II – with medium levels of contamination•Group III – with high level of contamination.

Source: M.N. Vijayshankar, Vice President, PT Apac Inti Corpora, Semarang, Indonesia.

Table I

Information taken from the ITC Cotton Exporter’s Guide

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The International Textile Manufactures Federation (ITMF) Cotton Contamination Survey

The level of cottons modestly or seriously contaminated did not increase compared to the last survey in 2007 remaining constant in 22%. Below there is a graphic with the percentage of contamination between all cotton evaluated in 2009.

In order to quantify and evaluate the level of cotton contamination worldwide, the International Textile Manufactures Federation conducts a survey of cotton users in every two years.

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A closer look at the contamination shows that…

• 6% (2007: 7%) of all cotton evaluated were seriously contaminated by some sort of foreign matter whereas 16% (2007: 15%) were only moderately contaminated.

As the summary data are arithmetic averages of the different contaminants, the extent of contamination is fully illustrated only by the results for the individual contaminants.

• They range from 4% for a “tar” (2007: 5%) to 42% of all cottons processed being contaminated by “organic matter”, i.e. leaves, feathers, paper, leather, etc (2007: 40%).

Other serious contaminants are• “strings made of jute hessian” (32%), • “strings made of woven plastic” (29%), • “fabric made of cotton” as well as “ “fabric made of plastic film” and “strings made of cotton” (26%) each.

IMTF Cotton Contamination Survey Ed. 2009.

Hand picked cotton in Burkina Faso

Classification of cotton and quality controll.

The International Textile Manufactures Federation (ITMF) Cotton Contamination Survey

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Evaluating countries levels.

The most contaminated cotton descriptions considered for the survey originated in India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Mali. In contrast, very clean raw cottons were produced in the USA, Israel, Australia, Brazil and the Ivory

Coast, as we can evaluate in the figure 2.

The International Textile Manufactures Federation (ITMF) Cotton Contamination Survey

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Main results of the surveyAnalyzing the results, it is perceived that the degree of contamination is always present, what changes is the level and how the market accept the cotton. In 2009, 110 companies were evaluated, but since 1989 the ITMF has been doing the survey with different companies in countries willing to participate. The table below will give you an overview about how cotton was classified in the last years among the companies evaluated.

Table IV. ITMF Contamination Survey results from 1989 to 2009.

The International Textile Manufactures Federation (ITMF) Cotton Contamination Survey

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Main results per country.Table V. The most contaminated sources of cotton

The International Textile Manufactures Federation (ITMF) Cotton Contamination Survey

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Table V. The least contaminated descriptions

Main results per country.

The International Textile Manufactures Federation (ITMF) Cotton Contamination Survey