It is indeed a privilege to be asked to report on new textile processing technologies and their impact on cotton fiber quality needs. This is a subject that we consider to be of the utmost importance to both the cotton producer and the textile industry (Figure 1).

At the Beltwide Cotton Conference in New Orleans, I discussed our findings during the preceding three years. Today I would like to briefly retrace the ground covered in my 1985 report, then share our experiences during the past two years and conclude with an outlook into the remainder of this decade.