February 20, 2025
Washington, DC — The current world is fast-paced, particularly in terms of technology, which seems to be developing at an exponential rate every day. The Committee for Commercial Standardisation of Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC) of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) has published an updated edition of the CSITC Guide (version 4.0, February 2025) to make sure the cotton sector can stay up. The Guide, which was written by numerous internationally renowned cotton specialists, attempts to give information on the specifications for cotton standardised instrument testing. The CSITC Guide 4.0 covers the following topics:
Conditions for Sampling
Conditions for the Laboratory
The conditions of the atmosphere
Adjustment
Methods of Testing
The European Union and the Common Fund for Commodities provided financing for the initial issue of this Guide in May 2012, with assistance from the Faserinstitut Bremen and the ICAC.
We expect the handbook will be published in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish in the near future, in addition to English.
CONCERNING THE CSITC
Since 2007, CSITC Round Trials have been held every quarter through collaboration between USDA (sample provision and dispatch), Bremen Fibre Institute (organisation and evaluation), and ICAC (managing participation). In order to minimise the amount of expensive arbitration claims that both buyers and sellers must endure, it is intended that all labs produce test results that are consistent with the reference values. To participate in the 2024 RTs or to learn more, laboratories should send an email to Maria Borisova (maria@icac.org) or csitcsecretariat@icac.org. To learn more about CSITC, follow this link. Please click here to view a pamphlet outlining the functions and advantages of CSITC.