At this 1989 Beltwide Cotton Production and Research Conferences, we have the good fortune of having four qualified and distinguished individuals discussing their views as to the problems with our current CQMS and their vision for the future. William B. Dunavant pointed out that U.S. cotton has not been competitive in the export market. Our foreign competitors are marketing their cotton to foreign mills at a lower price. W. Duke Kimbrell discussed problems of timely delivery of U.S. cotton to U.S. mills. He pointed out that the largest consumer of U.S. cotton are our domestic mills. U.S. domestic mills are also competing worldwide and have the difficulty of being required by law to purchase more expensive U.S. cotton. Emmanual Duclert indicated that were problems with U.S. cotton and he supported the concept of providing economic incentives to producers in a new marketing system.

Dr. Hal Lewis stressed the importance and benefit of HVI quality evaluations in establishing a fair market value of cotton fiber. He pointed out that the new spinning technologies significantly increased productivity at mills. Dr. Lewis also stressed that mills using these technologies preferred cotton fiber. He indicated that we should take advantage of this preference by developing a marketing system that encourages improvement of those quality factors that make U.S. cotton more attractive for these new technologies.