Docket Number: AMS-CP-20-0040
Dates: Invitations to submit proposals are expected to be issued within two weeks of the date of this notice.

Summary

The Cotton & Tobacco Program provides reliable quality data to U.S. cotton producers, facilitating the marketing of cotton to U.S. merchants and textile mills. Given the program’s stellar worldwide reputation for accuracy, making USDA quality data available to foreign textile mills adds value to U.S. cotton in a highly competitive global market. 

To accomplish this mission, Quality Assurance staff performs two key functions:

Grading services are an integral part of the U.S. cotton supply chain.  Cotton classing is not mandatory, rather grading is performed at the request of producers or their designees who pay a “user- fee” for the service.  Growers find third-party unbiased grading services provided by C&T essential to the fair and equitable marketing of their crop.

The Universal Cotton Standards Agreement of 1923 elevated the status of the USDA cotton standards to a fully internationally recognized standard.  Since this time, the Universal Cotton Standards have been produced and distributed by the AMS Cotton and Tobacco Program under the auspices of a delegate body made up of U.S. and international signatory delegates.

Universal Cotton Standards

• Notice to International Trade Community: Proposed Rule to Require More Businesses to be Certified USDA Organic (pdf)

The USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program began in May of 2020 and ended in May of 2021 having distributed more than 173 million food boxes of fresh produce, milk, dairy, cooked meats and seafood worth over $5 billion to Americans across the country.  The program was designed and implemented as a temporary, emergency relief effort to respond to severe market disruption caused by a global pandemic.