Seminar – (CFC/ICAC/33 CSITC)

In February 2008, the Gdynia Cotton Association held the seminar being the 1st stage of the programme “Commercial Standardisation of Instrument Testing of Cotton for the Cotton Producing Developing Countries in Africa” (CFC/ICAC/33 CSITC), financed from the Common Fund for Commodities resources. The program of the seminar: – Description of the Universal Cotton Standardisation System for Upland Cotton (USDA), – Cotton quality assessment on the world market – current situation, – Foreign matter and cotton stickiness – Training: manual medium staple cotton classification regarding: colour grade, leaf grade, preparation and extraneous matter (bark, grass, seed coat fragments, etc.), – Interpretation of results from the HVI line and their comparison with results of manual classification – for the same samples, – Principles of correct sampling, – Weighing, taring, humidity defining and calculation of commercial weight of cotton, – Explanation of general trading rules, structure of international cotton organisations, – Calculation of claim on the basis of value difference tables for a delivery deviating in quality from the contract conditions. The seminar was attended by Dominic H. Mwakangale (Tanzania Bureau of Standards), Humphrey M. Shango (Tanzania Cotton Board), Rodolphe Joel KY (Societe Burkinabe Des Fibres Textiles), Mamadou Togola (Cerfitex-Mali). Further stages of the programme will be realised in Bremen (Germany), Montpellier (France) and in the USA.