Page 9 - 04 Cotton SA October 2014

Nuus - News

New HVI’s

confirm trust

and importance in Cotton SA’s quality control

division fibre testing responsibility

otton SA’s continuous eff orts to improve The Uster HVI 1000 system is generally measures the colour grade by the degree of
its quality control services to the cotton acknowledged as the most accurate and refl ectance (RD) and Yellowness (+b) values as
Cindustry, locally and in the SADC region, reliable cotton instrument testing apparatus well as the trash count.
have been confi rmed by its grading laboratory on the global market.
being certifi ed under the International Cotton This important development in the fi bre
Association‘s (ICA) “International Laboratory Technology improvements of the Uster HVI testing environment which is of great national
Certifi cation Scheme”. Following this 1000 over its predecessors include the fi bre importance to the SA cotton industry,
achievement, the replacing of the obsolete comb, comb moisture, xenon fl ash, improved was funded by Government through its
HVI Systems with two new Uster HVI 1000 automatic sampling as well as on board Competitiveness Improvement Programme
Classifi cation Analysis Systems will certainly diagnostics . (CIP) as part of the overall Clothing and
improve the Quality Control Division’s services The Uster HVI 1000 system is able to do the Textiles Competitiveness Programme
to the cotton industry. following measurements and calculations: (CTCP) of the Department of Trade and
micronaire, maturity ratio, upper half mean Industries.
Commissioning of the new equipment was length, uniformity index, short fi bre index, Hein Schroder, Katoen SA
fi nalised on the 27th of June 2014.
strength and elongation. Additionally, it also

Mentorship Program Creates Jobs

his past season 100 ladies were able to The ladies who did the picking were so
put food on their tables because of the encouraging that Maria will be planting 36 ha
Tcreation of opportunities to pick cotton. this coming season, much to their delight.
When the team were assembled they were Percy Macaskill
contracted to pick cotton not only in their own
area, but as far away as Roedtan, 100 km from Cotton SA
home.
One of the most successful farmers was Maria
Swele of Matlerekeng who has been under
the mentorship of Frans Malela for the past 10
years. She started off with 4 ha of cotton, then
slowly increased year by year until last year she
harvested 13 200 kg of seed cotton from 12 ha.
Truly a shining example of what can be done if
one is prepared to work the land.
Maria Swele Truck with pickers

Katoen SA Cotton 9 September 2014