USDA Announces Cotton Board Appointments

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the appointment of two Members and two Alternates to the Cotton Board. Members and Alternates serving the Cotton Board are charged with providing strategic leadership to the Cotton Research and Promotion Program.

The appointed Members are: Aaron A. Barcellos, a producer from Los Banos, Calif., and Roger C. Glaspey, an importer from Fresno, Calif. These newly appointed Members will serve terms expiring on Dec. 31, 2014.

Both newly appointed Alternates are representatives from the importer segment making up the Cotton Board. They are: Sapna Sapru from Forest Hills, N.Y., and Kris T. Arabia from Orlando, Fla. The terms for the new Alternate appointees expire on Dec. 31, 2013.

CCI To Host Latin American Trade Mission

Textile executives from five Western Hemisphere countries will tour the U.S. Cotton Belt on June 9-16 to get a close look at U.S. cotton production, processing and marketing and to meet with U.S. Exporters.

This and all COTTON USA Special Trade Missions seek to enhance trading ties between the U.S. cotton industry and key overseas textile manufacturing customers – with an overall goal of helping U.S. cotton capture additional market share. The 22 tour participants represent companies in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico – markets that are among the top 20 in the world. The firms these textile executives represent are expecting to consume about 925,000 bales in the 2011/2012 marketing year.