Bale Packaging Materials Specifications Available at NCC’s Web Site

U.S. cotton industry members will be handling less paper – for two different reasons - in regards to the Joint Cotton Industry Bale Packaging Committee’s (JCIBPC) 2001 Specifications for Cotton Bale Packaging Materials.

July 26, 2001
Contact: Marjory Walker
(901) 274-9030

MEMPHIS – U.S. cotton industry members will be handling less paper - for two different reasons - in regards to the Joint Cotton Industry Bale Packaging Committee’s (JCIBPC) 2001 Specifications for Cotton Bale Packaging Materials.

First, USDA wants ginners not to annually renew their agreement with the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) regarding 2001 JCIBPC specifications – but allow the "Cooperating Ginner’s Bagging and Bale Ties Certification and Agreement" (CCC-809) to stay in effect indefinitely until terminated in writing by the ginner or by the CCC. The purpose is to reduce the annual paperwork load among county Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices and ginners.

"We urge ginners to enter into this agreement so their customers’ bales will maintain CCC loan eligibility," said Keith Pendergrass, a Donalson, GA, ginner and JCIBPC chairman. "This is a much better arrangement than in the past when ginners had to sign this agreement annually."

The second paperwork reduction process involves the physical distribution of the JCIBPC’s 2001 Specifications for Cotton Bale Packaging Materials.

Industry members now are being encouraged to obtain the specifications from the Publications and Education section of the National Cotton Council’s web site, www.cotton.org, said Dale Thompson, manager, marketing and processing technology for the NCC. USDA’s CCC office in Kansas City and state and county FSA office personnel also will direct industry members to the NCC web site for that document.

Thompson said this will enable the NCC and USDA to reduce the production and mailing of the multi-page specifications by 80 percent, from several thousand copies to just 1,500.

"In the past, for example, we were mailing more than 4,000 copies of the specifications to state and federal FSA offices," Thompson said. "These agencies then distributed them to gins and warehouses."

He said NCC will continue to make hard copies available to the JCIBPC members, those who attend the committee’s annual meeting and to those who cannot access the web or who need a hard copy.