Cotton Decoded: 36th International Cotton Conference Bremen 29. and 30. September

• Expert Outlook Raw Materials,
• Expert Outlook Cargo,
• Expert Outlook Finances

The Bremen Cotton Exchange and the Bremen Fibre Institute e.V. together are inviting to the 36^th International Cotton Conference Bremen on 29. and 30. September. Under the Slogan “Cotton Decoded” the conference participants will be offered an ambitious programme with topical lectures and lively discussion groups on location in Bremen as well as online via a conference platform. Bremen stands for quality – as especially the International Cotton Conference Bremen confirms impressively with its regularly up to 500 participants from 40 countries that are part of the cotton supply chain.

Strong Keynotes

“Over the last years, the keynotes have emerged as an ambitious item on the programme before the actual conference programme in Bremen. First-rate experts speak about topics that move the raw material world and challenge it economically”, emphasises Elke Hortmeyer, responsible for communication and international relationships at the Bremen Cotton Exchange and co-organiser of the International Cotton Conference.

Commodity Markets and Logistics

Strong keynotes will also ring in the two conference days of the upcoming conference. On the Thursday, Colin Iles, Executive Manager, Marketing Cotton & Sugar at the internationally acting raw material concern Glencore/Viterra, Rotterdam, will cast a glance into the future of cotton. Colin Iles need not be introduced to the cotton world. The experienced trader of raw materials has been working in his field for a long time. His view of the developments in the global commodity markets offers important and exclusive insights to all participants.

As the second speaker of the opening session and no less relevant, Nils Haupt has confirmed his participation as a sparring partner. Haupt is head of communications of Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hamburg, the biggest shipping company in Germany and the fifth biggest shipping company in the world. Haupt will address the future of maritime transport and questions of sustainability in cargo and also elaborate on the challenges within global supply chains.

International Financial Economy

On the second day of the conference, everything will revolve around finances. John Baffes is an expert on raw materials at the World Bank Washington, D.C. and chief economist in the group “Development Perspectives” of the World Bank. He is currently responsible for the “Commodity Markets Outlook”, a quarterly World Bank publication focusing on commodity market analyses and price prognoses. Participants can look forward to fascinating insights into current economic developments from the perspective of multinational development bank. 

An equally heavy weight from a completely different area of finances comes from Frankfurt: Jörg de Vries-Hippen is Chief Investment Officer and member of the European Executive Committee at Allianz Global Investors. For two decades, Allianz GI has been developing investment strategies for institutional as well as private clients from all over the world who are saving their assets with a view to the future. The market expertise of the company ranges from industrial to emerging countries, from single-country to global strategies. The investment volume amounts to 637 bn EUR. The perspective of the financial expert on developments within the world economy should be a fascinating one at the moment.

Bremen Cotton Night Special

The Bremen Cotton Exchange and the Bremen Fibre Institute are inviting to the well-known and popular Bremen Cotton Night again this year again. It is characterised by the 150^th anniversary of the Bremen Cotton Exchange and is for good reasons taking place in the Übersee-Museum (Overseas Museum) Bremen this time: concurrently that evening, the doors of the museum are opening for an impressive exhibition on the cultural history of cotton. This way, it also becomes accessible for the international guests of the Cotton Conference. “The participants of the conference will celebrate in the big atrium of the museum. Enjoying good music and good food, they will at last be able once again to spin personal networks and at the same time to pass in review the multi-faceted world of cotton with a beautiful and well-conceived exhibition”, emphasises Stephanie Silber, President of the Bremen Cotton Exchange. In the anniversary year, the Bremen Cotton Night is included in the conference price.

This year´s International Cotton Conference is taking place in the anniversary year of the Bremen Cotton Exchange. The organisation was founded in 1872 and is celebrating its 150^th birthday this year. The conference venue this year is not the historic town hall, but the Chamber of Commerce in Bremen in the immediate vicinity of the Cotton Exchange. The Chamber of Commerce has been representing the interests of trade in Bremen since 1451 and is in close contact with the Bremen Cotton Exchange.

Registration is underway

The starting gun for the registration has been fired: you can register at https://cotton-conference-bremen.de/ from now on. You will also find regularly updated information there.

We will continually inform about the International Cotton Conference on 29 and 30 September and about the complete programme in the run-up in the form of further press releases as well as target-group-specific newsletters and also via our social media channels.

Of course, we cordially invite all interested media representatives already now to visit the hybrid edition of the 36^th International Cotton Conference. We gladly support the choice of suitable interview partners. We appreciate all forms of media coverage even in the run-up to the conference. We are gladly available for further questions and interviews.

About the Bremen Cotton Exchange

• Founded in 1872 to strengthen the interests of the cotton trade and consumption in Germany, the Bremen Cotton Exchange has now been in the cotton business for 150 years. As an international court of arbitration, the Bremen Cotton Exchange always stands for neutrality.
• We offer various services to our members. Clear and neutral data and analyses are a part of this.
• As the ICA Bremen, together with the International Cotton Association in Liverpool and in cooperation with the Fibre Institute Bremen, we provide the International Quality Testing and Research Centre in Bremen. The Hanseatic city has now become the international centre for cotton testing and research, quality training and certification.
• We represent our members in all the important international bodies in the cotton world.

About the Fibre Institute Bremen e. V. (FIBRE)

• In its 66-years history, the Institute has developed from a cotton testing laboratory into a successful research institute in the fields of future-oriented fibres, technical textiles and fibre composites at the University of Bremen. It deals with basic scientific and application-oriented questions along the entire process chain from fibre production to the manufacturing of fibre composite components and more for the aircraft industry.
• FIBRE’s central international importance in cotton is shown by its work on the international harmonisation of cotton testing [e.g. round tests in cooperation with the ICAC and USDA-AMS], its work in central committees [ICAC Committee on Standardised Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC), ITMF Cotton Testing.