Research & Promotion

Cotton Incorporated is charged with promoting cotton to consumers. It does this through a wide variety of tactics, the most well known of which is advertising. The advertising climate in today’s world is changing and challenging. Companies must be able to find cost-effective programming (TV, digital, etc.) that can reach a large percentage of the target audience at a time ... Read More »

CALIFORNIA UPDATE By Bob Hutmacher Extension Specialist/Agronomist University of California We had what seems like another “unusual” spring this year, with a warm mid-March that encouraged early plantings followed by cool and even cold weather on multiple occasions during April and into early May. Even though soils often weren’t wet during this period and rain was somewhat limited, the cooler ... Read More »

National Prime Rib Day, National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day and National Wine Day – there is actually a national food holiday for every single day of the calendar year. To engage with consumers and take advantage of conversations happening around these celebrations, which often trend on social media, Cotton Incorporated merged two of consumers’ favorite social passion points — food ... Read More »

The Cotton Board is governed by its membership, which consists of both cotton producers and cotton importers. Importers serving on The Cotton Board represent various major U.S. brands and retailers – significant downstream users of cotton. The producers serving on The Cotton Board represent their respective state in the U.S. Cotton Belt. Together, these segments of the Board represent a ... Read More »

The 2017 Beltwide Cotton Conferences (BWCC) can help its attendees improve production, processing and marketing efficiency by providing them with insight into the latest available tools and research findings. Those planning to attend the concurrent conferences, set for Jan. 4-6 at the Hyatt Regency Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas, are urged to register and make hotel reservations. Information about those ... Read More »

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Cotton Incorporated’s Blue Jeans Go Green denim recycling program, an initiative that diverts denim garments from landfills and upcycles them. Manufacturing partner Bonded Logic Inc. in Chandler, Ariz., turns them into UltraTouch Denim Insulation, and a portion of the home and building insulation is then donated to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity ... Read More »

After rallying to the upper 70 cents per pound range during the month of July, new crop cotton futures prices appear to be working their way back down. For much of 2016, new crop cotton futures prices seemed to be stuck in an upper 50 cents to low 60 cents per pound trading range. All of the fundamental supply and demand news pointed to larger acreage and larger production in 2016. With no significant signs of improved domestic or export demand, the potential for a large 2016 crop weighed heavily on the market.However, as the summer progressed, the development of hot, dry conditions in Texas and parts of Georgia along with dry conditions in India began to foster concerns of lower cotton supplies. This introduced a considerable amount of risk premium in the markets and helped support prices. Speculative interests took this momentum and continued to push prices higher by going from a net short position (selling more contracts then purchasing) in early 2016 to the highest net long position (purchasing more contracts then selling) in more than two years. However, this has brought prices to levels that are not fully supported by the underlying supply and demand fundamentals. Read More »