United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued new regulations in order to resolve the 'wet cotton' issue, which the cotton merchants fear will dent the reputation of US cotton in international market.
The regulation lays norms regarding storage, handling and ginning requirement for cotton and goes on to define wet cotton as a bale that exceeds 7.5 percent moisture at any point when measured at the gin.
As per the new norms, the bales that cross the limit of 7.5 percent moisture will be barred from availing marketing assistance loan. Cotton ginners say that the problem of wet cotton has been exaggerated as it was a small number of gins.
It was looked as a major problem but in the end it turned out to be only 66,000 out of 23 million bales along with the crop of 2005, informed the Southern Cotton Ginners Association.
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