If Australia is to maintain its reputation as a consistent supplier of high quality cotton it will need to ensure that the entire cotton pipeline from growing to ginning and warehousing to transportation and shipping in Australia conforms to industry Best Management Practices (BMP). As part of this process, the ginning sector will need to be assessed independently via a formal audit to determine its compliance with the draft Best Management Practice for Ginning, version 3.0, handbook, compiled in February 2007 by the Australian Cotton Ginners Association of Australia (ACGA). This will allow individual gins to make operational corrections to their practice so that ultimately the industry can achieve consistent and better classing grades.

To this end the ACGA has decided to conduct audits of its member gins through CSIRO Textile and Fibre Technology (CTFT), an organisation that is considered to be independent.