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 from

warehouse to port conforms to industry Best Management Practices (BMP). The BMP

program has been successfully taken up by the growing sector in 1999 and the classing

sector in 2004, with the ginning, harvesting and warehousing and despatch still

outstanding. In response to this need a draft BMP Handbook for Ginning, was compiled

in late 2006. Initial audits were conducted during the 2007 ginning season to determine

the compliance of the gins to the draft BMP for Ginning. These audits were also

conducted to determine any discrepancies and omissions in the draft BMP for Ginning.

As a result of the initial audits the draft BMP was amended and formalised with formal

scheduled audits conducted during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 ginning seasons. During

the 2009 ginning season, sixty three percent; during the 2010 season, seventy five

percent and during the 2011 season, eighty percent of the operational gins were audited

against the current version of the BMP Handbook for Ginning. This Handbook for

Ginning has evolved over the three years becoming more comprehensive with each

updated version. A large number of the audited gins complied with the current version

of the BMP Handbook for Ginning and as a consequence were recommended for

certification by Cotton Australia. There are however a large number of issues that were

raised during the 2011 audits which will need to be attended to by the Australian

Cotton Ginners Association and the individual gins.