From climate change to the global economy, some of the cotton industry’s hottest topics were on the agenda last week at our iconic annual trade event, which was held in San Francisco’s Hyatt Regency on 30-31 October.
Hosted by the ICA’s outgoing President, Jordan Lea, 600 delegates from the global cotton community came together to take part in the two day event, which saw 11 top industry speakers take to the stage.
With a keynote session from Todd Buchholz, former Director for Economic Policy at the White House and a leading expert on the global economy, there was also plenty of opportunity for delegates to network and do business, which is always one of the event’s unique selling points.
At the closing gala dinner, in a sincere and humorous speech that saw Jordan Lea hand over the ICA presidency to Jean-Marc Derossis, Jordan paid tribute to his co-workers at the ICA and gave special thanks to his wife Cathy and business partner Phil Canale. On a more serious note, Jordan talked about the rise in synthetic fabrics and world cotton consumption:
“It is not news to anyone here that there is too much cotton out there. We can blame China, the US or anybody else, but that is not solving the issue. The best way to solve the ending stock issue is consumption. Cotton and textiles create jobs all over the world in places that need them the most – from Africa to India to Pakistan to Brazil and beyond. Cotton has a great story to tell. It is pure, it is responsible and it is natural. It has to be profitable to produce without massive price supports and we need less government in the cotton business, not more. We all need to work together to drive innovation and progress in cotton product development that dramatically increases demand for cotton, cotton seed, cotton seed oil, biomass – everything that an acre of cotton produces.”
Next year’s trade event will take place in Liverpool UK, to mark the 175th anniversary of the association, which began life in Liverpool in 1841.
Full details will be posted on our website soon – watch this space.
