NEW YORK — Hong Kong-based Central Textiles Ltd. has signed to be the first Chinese mill to license Cotton Incorporated’s Engineered Fiber Selection software, ensuring the use of U.S.-grown cotton in its operations.
The 52-year-old, privately held yarn and fabric manufacturer will implement the EFS fiber management system next month, Cotton Inc. said. The EFS system is a software program that utilizes U.S. Department of Agriculture High Volume Instrument data, which analyzes cotton fiber attributes such as color, quality, strength and thickness, and allows yarn spinners to produce a higher-quality and more uniform product.
Central Textiles has a manufacturing facility in Hong Kong and one in China’s Guangdong province, and is among the largest producers of stretch yarn in Asia. The company’s two facilities have a combined annual capacity of 55,000 tons, and buy about 250,000 bales of U.S. cotton a year.
The EFS system plays a prominent role in Cotton Inc.’s efforts to ensure the use of cotton in developing countries such as India and China, where cheaper and easier-to-produce synthetic fibers are taking a larger share of the apparel and home furnishings markets. Foreign mills and textile companies are being urged to employ the EFS system to improve product quality and consistency.
Promoting EFS globally has direct advantages for domestic cotton growers, as well, as it requires foreign companies that decide to implement the system to use a large percentage of U.S. cotton in its operations.
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