Bremen Town Hall, Bremen, Germany,
The Bremen Cotton Exchange and the Fibre Institute Bremen e.V. invite you to the 36th International Cotton Conference Bremen on 29 and 30 September. Under the motto “Cotton Decoded”, conference participants will be offered an ambitious programme with up-to-date lectures and lively discussions, both on site in Bremen and via an online conference platform. The day’s events will be rounded off by an exciting evening program.
A special feature: On Friday 29 September, the conference will highlight the high-quality cotton production within the European Union in the network and the downstream, highly specialised textile and clothing industry, under the headline ‘Region in Focus’. “The three-part session will show and discuss opportunities for stronger positioning and assertiveness in international competition” explains Axel Drieling (FIBRE e.V.) from the conference planning team.
The countries of the European Union, such as Greece and Spain, are among the largest cotton exporters in the world. Europe is the world’s second largest importer of textiles and clothing. This includes the raw material cotton with a share of around 50 percent, only a small part of which comes from Europe. In addition, Europe is one of the world’s leading suppliers of innovative technical textiles, for example in the health sector, automotive engineering or interior design. Here, too, natural fibres such as cotton are increasingly being used as renewable raw materials and, because of their biodegradability, as part of the drive towards a circular economy.
The first part of the session will not only present the cotton textile industry in facts and figures, but also discuss its strengths and weaknesses. The predominant market structures within the framework of EU agricultural policy will be made transparent.
This will be followed by a discussion about new possibilities in the EU textile chain, embedded in the European Commission’s strategy to build a resource-saving circular economy. The background here is changing consumer behaviour towards sustainably manufactured textiles. The aim is to make it clear what the competitive advantages of the EU textile chain are against this background, with which the demanding wishes of European consumers can be satisfied more quickly and flexibly. This could result in opportunities for the development of locally or regionally structured value chains.
Last but not least, the ‘EU cotton’ initiative of the European Cotton Alliance, an association of European cotton organizations, will be presented. It enables European cotton farmers and their affiliated companies to provide their cotton with an EU cotton label, which can also be found in processed cotton textile products. The associated licensing program could make market-oriented textile production in Europe more lucrative through transparency and traceability.
Bremen Town Hall, Bremen, Germany,
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