#Raw Materials

2022-08-11

The ICAC will give away $9,000 in multiple World Cotton Day contests

With two months to go until 7 October, the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) has announced that it will hold a number of contests to celebrate World Cotton Day, totalling $9,000 in prize money. There will be six contests, with each awarding the winner $1,000 and the runner-up $500.

Four of them will be held on Twitter; winners will be those whose tweets get the most points (1 point for each like and 3 points for each retweet) for tweets sent between 1 September and 6 October, with the winners announced on World Cotton Day. Each tweet must include three hashtags — #worldcottonday; #ICAC_Cotton; #cottonforgood (the official theme of World Cotton Day) — as well as a fourth that indicates which contest the tweet is for:

1. #cotton: Tweets about the cotton plant, including the raw fibre.

2. #madewithcotton: Tweets about products made from cotton.

3. #sustainablecotton: Tweets about some aspect of cotton’s sustainability.

4. #cottonresearch: Tweets about the science of cotton.

In addition, two contests will be held at the World Cotton Research Conference, which begins on 4 October in Cairo and concludes on World Cotton Day:

1. Best live presentation, and

2. Best poster.

‘Because cotton alleviates poverty in many of the world’s least-developed countries and helps fight climate change globally, the more visibility cotton gets on 7 October, the better’, said Kai Hughes, ICAC Executive Director. ‘We want to motivate people to spread the good word about cotton with the Twitter contests, and want to reward the scientists whose research is the lifeblood of the cotton industry’s development at the World Cotton Research Conference’.

For more information about the ICAC’s World Cotton Day contests, and see an example of a tweet for the #madewithcotton contest, please click here:

https://www.worldcottonday.com/location/international-cotton-advisory-committee-icac-2/

ICAC releases 2025 edition of the Specialty Cotton Report

The ICAC has released the newest edition of the Specialty Cotton Report, a free publication that was created in 2023 to highlight the many new "identity cotton programs" that have been emerging around the world, in addition to covering long-staple (LS) and extra-long staple (ELS) cotton. For the ICAC's purposes, "specialty cotton" refers to any cotton that is remarkable in some way — LS, ELS, or falls under a specific identity program.

BCI warns against ‘dangerous dilution’ of EU corporate directives

The approval of the European Commission’s Omnibus I proposal by the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs, accepting controversial changes to key sustainability directives is of great concern. These changes, namely to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), threaten to significantly dilute business reporting and due diligence obligations.

Fashion For Good launches “Beyond50 Denim” to address hemp integration barriers in global denim production

Fashion for Good, together with leading global brands BESTSELLER, C&A, PDS Limited, Reformation, and Target, launched Beyond50 Denim: Combining Cottonised Hemp and Green Chemistry, a project accelerating the use of hemp as an alternative to conventional cotton in denim. By combining two pioneering innovations (SEFF’s Nano-Pulse™ cottonised hemp fibres and FIBRE52™’s proprietary chemistry formulations with soft handfeel), the project seeks to demonstrate that hemp-based denim can match or even surpass cotton in both performance and appeal.

Spinnova and Rieter to publish a yarn spinning guideline for industrial partners

Spinnova and Rieter have published a comprehensive yarn spinning guideline for industrial partners, detailing how to produce compact yarn from SPINNOVA® fibre using Rieter’s state-of-the-art machinery. The step-by-step guide outlines key considerations at each stage of the spinning process and is available upon request.

Evonik and AMSilk extend partnership for sustainable biotech silk materials

Evonik and AMSilk, a global leader in advanced biomaterials based on silk proteins, have deepened their collaboration with a long-term agreement to produce sustainable silk proteins at industrial scale. Building on their initial manufacturing agreement from 2023, the companies have commissioned a manufacturing line at Evonik’s Slovakian site for AMSilk’s high-performance silk. This innovative biomaterial is produced with minimal environmental impact and is designed for use in premium fashion and highly demanding automotive interiors.

Compact, powerful, cost-efficient – KARL MAYER launches its HKS 2-SE TWO

KARL MAYER is launching a new two-bar tricot machine for the elastic sector at ITMA ASIA + CITME 2025. This newcomer is called HKS 2-SE TWO, stands for double customer benefits, and offers even more advantages than the predecessor model. With this innovation, the leading textile machinery company is once again asserting its top position in the market.

VDMA members at ITMA ASIA + CITME in Singapore

With 69 exhibiting member companies, ITMA ASIA + CITME 2025 is once again marked by a strong presence of VDMA companies. Altogether 82 companies from Germany will exhibit at the show, covering about 3,500 square meters of exhibition space, topped only by China and Italy. VDMA initiated a German Pavilion with two group stands (spinning in hall 4 and finishing in hall 7) with a total of 30 exhibitors.

Marzoli unveals its new textile ecosystem at ITMA ASIA + CITME 2025 at Singapore

With the claim “Designed to Impact”, Marzoli showcases its evolution into a complete engineering company for the textile industry. By combining advanced machinery, digital intelligence, science of materials and innovative services, the company enables textile manufacturers unlock new business opportunities, and accelerate their path to innovation and differentiation.