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The Stakeholder Newsletter of the Cotton & Tobacco Program - August 2023
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To the valued customers and stakeholders of the AMS Cotton and Tobacco Program:
Welcome to the summer 2023 edition of the AMS Cotton and Tobacco Program (C&T) stakeholder newsletter. In this issue, we have updates on the C&T executive leadership transition, a review of 2022 crop quality, user fee changes, planning of the 2024 Universal Cotton Standards Conference and the status of automation initiatives in C&T cotton classing facilities.
We are currently transitioning leadership after the retirement of Darryl Earnest, the program’s long-serving deputy administrator who retired on April 30, 2023, after 33 years of federal service all with C&T. Hiring to fill the deputy administrator position is underway, with a job announcement that closed at the end of July seeking applicants from within and outside of the federal government. The process for hiring a federal senior executive can last several months. Until the vacancy is filled, we (Monica Alexander and Ronald Robbins) will continue to rotate as the acting deputy administrator.
We are continuing to operate as usual, while also moving ahead on planned initiatives to expand automation into other cotton classing offices. Our team will continue to collaborate and engage with our industry customers and look for new ways to bring you efficient, high-quality, and cost-effective services.
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Market News Redefines Cotton Spot Markets for Reporting
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) published a final rule in the Federal Register that defines which cotton spot markets the AMS Cotton and Tobacco Program Market News Division will use to report cotton grown in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
In July 2023, AMS amended 7 CFR Part 27.93 Bona Fide Spot Markets by moving cotton grown in Oklahoma and Kansas from the East Texas-Oklahoma spot market to the West Texas spot market and changed the names of the affected markets to describe the markets more accurately. The new names of the spot markets are East Texas and South Texas and West Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma. The final rule goes into effect at the beginning of the 2024 marketing year on August 1, 2023.
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2022 Crop Quality Highlights
The C&T Market News Division released the Season-to-Date Quality Report for the 2022 cotton crop on July 3, 2023. C&T classing offices graded 13,639,699 Upland bales and 454,893 bales of American Pima. For the 2022 crop, 82.3 percent of cotton classed was tenderable for delivery against the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Cotton Futures contract. This is the second highest percent of the crop tenderable since the 1958 crop.
2023 Crop Outlook
According to USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, as of June 30, 2023, all cotton planted area for 2023 is estimated at 11.1 million acres, down 19 percent from last year. Upland area is estimated at 11.0 million acres, down 19 percent from 2022. American Pima area is estimated at 109,000 acres, down 40 percent from 2022.
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The Advisory Committee on Universal Cotton Standards was re-established on June 1, 2023. Concurrent with the re-establishment process, the nomination period for the Advisory Committee on Universal Cotton Standards opened on April 1 with an initial deadline of May 1. After receiving requests from the U.S. cotton industry segments for additional time, an extension was granted to accept nominations through July 1. The applications are currently being reviewed and nominees will be presented to the Secretary of Agriculture for final selection.
The role of members selected for this Advisory Committee will be to make recommendations to the Secretary of any additions or revisions to the Universal Cotton Standards and to review and approve the practical forms of the Universal Upland Cotton Grade Standards.
Planning is underway to conduct the 30th Universal Cotton Standards Conference in June 2024. The conference will be held in Memphis, Tennessee.
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USDA AMS Cotton & Tobacco Program Receives $4M Congressional Appropriation in FY 2023
C&T received a $4 million appropriation from Congress in the fiscal year 2023 budget. The support is intended for use in purchasing automated Conveyance Conditioning Systems (CCS) and updating cotton classing facilities.
C&T used the funding to further implement long-term plans for a CCS in every cotton classing facility, purchasing one for installation in the Macon, Georgia facility. Macon is one of C&T’s largest cotton classing facilities, classing 3 to 4 million bales each season. The CCS will reduce the number of high-volume cotton testing instruments by one-third and increase productivity and efficiency. With the new CCS expected to be available for the 2024 crop, the Macon office will be able to test and class upwards of 60,000 samples per day.
With the implementation of CCS in Macon in 2024, six of nine operating C&T facilities will have been automated with a CCS.
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