Word: cotton
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Exporters of U.S. cotton, who this year will ship $600 million worth of the nation's sixth largest export, have a tough row to hoe. More and more European buyers are complaining about the condition of U.S. cotton. "America sends us the worst-made-up bales," says Harry Tonge, chairman of Britain's Raw Cotton Committee. Grumbles one Genoa importer: "The condition of U.S. cotton cries out for revenge." Some countries are beginning to take revenge. Communist Bulgaria judged a shipment to be so shoddy that it not only delayed unloading the $2,750,000 cargo last month...
Loudest complaints come from Bremen, Europe's busiest cotton exchange...
German importers cast baleful eyes up on slashed bundles of brittle, short-fibered U.S. cotton that sometimes contains a large amount of twigs, leaves and rocks. Nearly half the U.S. cotton shipments to Bremen go into arbitration, which often results in stiff price penalties for the U.S. shippers...
...does the U.S., which prides itself on exporting quality goods, have this problem? European buyers blame the poor condition of the cotton partly on U.S. mechanization. Cotton-picking machines gather more leaves and stems than hand-pickers do; fast-ginning machines dry the cotton excessively, leaving the fibers broken and brittle. The Agriculture Department contends that quality has actually improved in recent years, says the complaints stem mainly from the Europeans' desire to achieve lower prices through arbitration...
...Europeans have a legitimate grievance and a good part of the responsibility for it rests with the U.S. federal bureaucracy. Piling subsidy atop subsidy, the Government buys up much of the cotton that U.S. farmers grow, and it handles most of the cotton that is exported. The Government is supposed to properly inspect the bales, but apparently its standards of classification and control are not sufficiently strict. Exporters buy the cotton from the Government, sometimes sell low grades at high-grade prices-and Washington does not stop them...