700 Delegates Gather in Singapore for Trade Event and Gala Dinner

Over 700 delegates from the global cotton community gathered in Singapore from 11-12 October for the International Cotton Association’s (ICA) traditional trade event and gala dinner. Delegates came together in the Raffles City Convention Centre to take part in the two-day event, which saw a variety of top industry speakers take to the stage.

The event featured keynote sessions from Joe Nicosia (Louis Dreyfus Company), Sunny Verghese (Olam International), Michael Every (RaboResearch) and a panel session organised by Women in Cotton which focused on Traceable Supply Chains. There was also plenty of opportunity for delegates to network and do business, one of the main event attractions.

At the closing ‘Colours of the East’ Gala Dinner, Tim North (Tim North Consulting) passed over the ICA presidency to Kim Hanna (TransGlobal Inspections).

In his speech, Tim North reflected on key areas of focus during his time as ICA President:

Membership growth: “Our membership has seen significantly more members join than in previous years which is a real positive...”

Membership structure review: “I set up a committee to review our membership structure. It was high time to do so....to make our fees more equitable among various groups and to also allow for other categories of membership as our business evolves in a changing textile world...”

Brand and retail committee: “In this brave new and rapidly evolving world of sustainability, of traceability and transparency, the whole chain is becoming more translucent. There have been and there continue to exist what can be described as “walls“ between the various segments of our industry... For the first time, and under my leadership, the ICA formed a brand and retail committee that included several prominent brands and retailers from both the E.U. and the U.S.A. We met a number of times. Our discussions were both engaging and they were productive. This is an ongoing, developing and evolving process...”

Default list reduction: “The ICA has been quite successful in recent years in both discouraging participants from getting on the default list and encouraging those on the list to negotiate their way off the default list. This has been notably achieved by signing so-called MoUs or Memorandums of Understanding between key organisations that are playing vital roles in developing the march forward in a sustainable world...”

MoUs with key organizations: “Organisations such as BCI and Cotton Made in Africa are already signatories to this accord. Part of my goal to achieve a safer trading environment was to actively identify other organisations who are bubbling up to the top in this new age of a sustainable world and who will become key to those who want to and have to develop their business in this new world. I am pleased to say that under my leadership, the ICA has signed an MoU with Textile Genesis - a world leader in the vital role of block chain traceability. We are also actively engaged with Supima in developing an MoU,...”

Tim North concluded his speech by thanking the members for their confidence and trust in him during his time as President. He said, “What a journey. What an honour. What memories!”

Next year's ICA event will take place in Liverpool from 16 - 17 October.