CSITC — Round Trials, 2008

Participating test centers 2008 (revised) (23K PDF)
Press release — 5 January, 8th CSITC Round Trial Completed (32K PDF)
General evaluation from CSITC Round Trial RT 2008-4 (156K PDF)
General evaluation from CSITC Round Trial RT 2008-3 (98K PDF)
General evaluation from CSITC Round Trial RT 2008-2 (155K PDF)
General evaluation from CSITC Round Trial RT 2008-1 (538K PDF)

The ICAC Task Force on Commercial Standardization of Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC) successfully conducted the first quarterly CSITC Round Trials in 2007. Sixty-seven testing centers from twenty-four ICAC member countries and three non-member countries participated in the trials. The participating countries were Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The ICAC Task Force on CSITC will begin the 2008 CSITC Round Trials in January of 2008. All cotton testing centers—including test centers or laboratories operated in the private and public sectors and for industry associations—are urged to participate in the round trials. Participation in the CSITC Round Trials is not limited to test centers using Uster HVI equipment. CSITC evaluations are based on test results and are not dependent on the manufacturer, model or kind of testing instruments used.

The purpose of the Task Force on CSITC is to encourage standardization of cotton instrument testing so as to promote efficiency in cotton production and marketing. The CSITC Task Force was authorized after the plenary meeting in 2003 and has met eight times.

The purpose of the quarterly round trials is to help all cotton test centers to ensure that their results are on the same levels of accuracy as other test centers around the world. Participating test centers will receive detailed information about their results in each round trial so as to enable them to improve performance. Round trial results for each test center will not be reported to the public, but overall results for the Round Trials as a whole will be published.