At the end of January, ICA Bremen conducted an online workshop tailored for the Brazilian cotton association Abrapa aiming for the improvement of cotton testing procedures. According to Edson Mizoguchi, manager of Abrapa’s Standard Brasil HVI Program (SBRHVI), the goal of the training was to enhance technical procedures as well as the standardization of essential quality features of the laboratory work. This includes good supervision, as well as maintenance and control of the laboratories’ air conditioning systems. The workshop also dealt with current international Best Practices.

The training was conducted by Axel Drieling, Senior Manager Cotton at the Faserinstitut Bremen e.V., who has already been involved in structuring the SBRHVI program. “Best Practice includes all steps of testing, influences relevant to the measured value, environmental conditions such as the laboratory climate and sample climate control, and the quality management in the laboratory. Further important subjects were the measures to ensure the comparability of test results between laboratories and thus also the evaluation of laboratories in the international round tests,” Drieling emphasizes.

The workshop on Best Practices was attended by 35 experts working for the group of laboratories approved for cotton testing in Brazil. 15 inspectors from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture (Mapa) and two researchers from Embrapa were also present. In training sessions for the program of voluntary certification of the cotton chain, federal agricultural inspectors are currently being educated in cotton fibre quality.