On The Stump: Talking High Cotton Prices

Over the past few weeks, I've been fortunate to participate in several public events to discuss the recent run up in cotton prices, what it means for clothing companies, and what the prospects are for prices in the future.

Most recently, I was delighted to speak at a webinar hosted by Seattle-based Sanmar, a leading supplier of wholesale apparel. The webinar was entitled "From Cotton To Textiles: Production, Consumption & Future Implications."  A copy of the webinar is available from Sanmar HERE (it's about an hour long) where you can view the slide presentation I used for the talk and download a copy of a white paper I prepared providing additional details on where I see the market going.

About two weeks ago, I was honored to give a presentation at the USDA Annual Outlook Forum in Washington, DC.  I gave a presentation entitled "The Impact of Record Cotton Prices On Consumption" as part of the Cotton Outlook Session. Additionally, as part of the Cotton Session, and available for download,  there's a terrific cotton market overview written by leading USDA analysts James Johnson, James Kiawu, Stephen MacDonald, Leslie Meyer, Eugene Rosera, and Carol Skelly. I also recommend downloading cotton presentations made by James Johnson (USDA), Herman Kohlmeyer (Michael J. Nugent and Co.) and Kater Hake (Cotton Inc.). In addition to the cotton presentations, the main Outlook Conference website provides copies of speeches made on a variety of agricultural topics by a wide range of speakers including former US President Bill Clinton and current Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Finally, I wanted to share a seminar that Olah Inc held in New York last month at the Kingpins Show entitled "The Cotton Conference." I was fortunate to participate in a dialogue with some really terrific analysts and industry leaders to discuss the situation in cotton and the implication of high cotton prices for clothing companies. About 100 brands and retailers attended the seminar. We recorded two hours of video from the seminar, which is divided into sections by each speaker's individual presentation: Jack Matthews (Plains Cotton Cooperative), David Collins (Cotton Council International), Jeff Silverman (Fashion Institute of Technology), O.A. Cleveland (Mississippi State University) and Bob Antoshak (Olah Inc.)

Should anyone wish to discuss these presentations in more detail, I welcome you to email me at Rantoshak@olah.com.