Washington, DC — As the new year gets underway, the International Cotton Advisory Committee’s (ICAC) initiatives to encourage cotton instrument testing have been yielding encouraging results.
72 testing facilities submitted a record-breaking 173 instruments, the most ever tested in a single Round Trial in the 19-year history of the Committee for Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC), which has released the results of its fourth and final of the 2024 Round Trials (Figure 1). In line with the 0.30 to 0.40 range that Round Trials has been generating throughout 2017, the median Overall Evaluation Result (OER) was 0.36 (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Facility & instrument participation from 2007 to 2024

Figure 2. OER from 2007 to 2024 with trend line
Round Trials give each participating facility comprehensive, private diagnostic results, which helps to enhance cotton instrument testing globally. Participating testing facilities receive a thorough analysis of their results and deviations from the reference values, which aids in their improvement, rather than pass/fail results.
The CSITC has made a number of internal changes to maintain its momentum:
- Creating a new CSITC logo.
- Establishing an executive committee to provide leadership and make quick decisions.
- Updating the roles and responsibilities of members.
- Releasing a new brochure about its activities and the benefits of participation.
- Increasing outreach to instrument manufacturers and spinning mills.
- Focusing on member recruitment, with new members joining from countries including Brazil, India, Pakistan, and Türkiye.
For more information on CSITC and how to participate in Round Trials, please click here.