It is a well known fact that Australian cotton has a reputation as a consistent supplier of high quality cotton, which needs to be accurately and consistently specified. In order to do this the Australian Industry has, since 2004, assessed it classing sector independently to allow individual classing facilities, of which there are six, to correct any technical and operational shortcomings in their practices. This work has over the last three years been conducted by CMSE in conjunction with the CCAA with funding from the CRDC. This assessment has included; conducting formal Round-robin Trials, Check Tests, both local and international, Colour Trials, updating the BMP and conducting certification audits which will ultimately assist the industry in better predicting the quality of our cotton.

The reproducibility results from the local CCAA Check Test program, whose main aim is to determine the long term reproducibility of all HVI instruments, has been consitently improving over the last three years that. The reproducibility for fibre length, uniformity index, strength and +b (greyness) are all above 90%, with the exception of Rd (reflectance) which is below 80%. This is mainly due to the fact that the current colour chart loaded in the HVI instruments reflects US cotton which is creamier than Australian cotton.

A number of classing facilities also participate in a number of international Round Trials with most classing facilities preferring the CSITC Round Trial. Australia is the only country that collects the results of its instruments for analysis as an industry. The performance of the Australian instruments in the CSITC Round Trials has been encouraging, with the Australian instruments, with a few exceptions, generally performing better than the world average, the exception being the results for b+.

The Best Management Practice (BMP) Handbook for Classing has been extensively updated and expanded over the last three years and also linked to the BMP Handbook for Ginning. All the classing facilities that were operational over the last three years have been audited and recommended for certification by CA.

ACSA have requested that the subjective measurement of colour be discontinued and replaced by the objective measurement of colour by HVI. In preparation of developing a colour chart classing results of a large number of samples from the 2008/09 and 2009/10 crop were analysed with a draft colour chart formulated for the 2009/10 classing season. Work in this area is still in its infancy and will need further work to ensure that growers are not negatively affected due to the change from visual to objective classing of colour grade.

The results from the CRDC Quarantine Treatments project have allowed the CCAA to successfully lobby AQIS to amend their procedures regarding the treatment of calibration cotton imported into the country. AQIS have agreed that samples will now only be treated by fumigation by ETO provided that the facility has an import permit and not gamma irradiation.