COTTON SA
Cotton in Pretoria

Enhancing the marketability of cotton through research, quality standards and norms and training in this regard. Participating in international check test programmes to maintain continuity and accuracy in the testing results. Liaising with role-players and making available cotton lint grading and classification results. Publishing information on all types of cotton cultivated in South Africa, with a special focus on quality. Minimum specifications applicable to grade and quality in the present grading systems. The cotton industry is segmented into different parts that reflect the entire cotton supply chain. Each part is linked to ensure continuity of supply and consistent quality. Cotton South Africa is overseen by a Board of Directors drawn from across the industry who share a deep understanding of the entire cotton value chain. The board is made up of representatives from every part of the industry, ensuring the voices of all stakeholders are heard. We place ourselves at the centre of the cotton industry. This allows all stakeholders, including producers, farmers, government and labour to be sufficiently represented. Our programmes and projects are designed for the benefit of every group operating in the industry. Cotton grows naturally in different colours, in white, brown, pink and green. The first step in processing picked cotton takes place at the ginnery. The oil is used in food preparation, while the cake or meal is used in fodder production. Nobody knows exactly how long cotton has been in existence. That said, archaeologists have found fragments of cotton bolls and cloth of more than 7000 years old in prehistoric caves in Mexico. There is evidence that Egyptians in the Nile Valley were manufacturing and wearing cotton clothes 3 000 years before the birth of Christ. At around the same time cotton was also being grown in the valley of the Indus River in Pakistan, where it was hand-spun and hand-woven into fabric. The great philosophers Herodotus and Pliny both mentioned cotton in their writings. In 1793 Eli Whitney, an American inventor, patented the first ginning machine. The machine allowed workers to separate fibre from seed 50 times faster than the manual process. Even today, the process of separating fibre from seed is known as ginning. However, the cotton plant prefers a warm climate and requires a substantial amount of moisture for the seed to germinate. Production came to a virtual standstill after 1870, picking up again only at the start of the twentieth century. In 1922, the co-operative movement was born in Barberton when a co-operative and ginnery were established there. Even in the early days of its cultivation, cotton played an important role in the manufacture of explosives, when African Explosives erected a ginnery at Umbogintwini in KwaZulu Natal in At that point, fibre was exported to Liverpool for spinning and weaving, since there were no facilities available in South Africa. In 1927, cotton was grown under irrigation in the Lower Orange River area for the first time.