Cotton Exchange

The Bremen Cotton Exchange

“The purpose of the Bremen Cotton Exchange, created under this name as a ‘body corporate’, is to maintain and to promote the interests of all those connected with the cotton trade and the processing and finishing of cotton and cotton products, as well as other textile fibres and textile fibre products.”

This is the first paragraph of our by-laws. For 150 years, and under this guiding principle, the Bremen Cotton Exchange has represented its members, who come from Germany, Europe and overseas. Our registered office is in the Hanseatic City of Bremen, in which there is a long tradition of cotton trade.

The Bremen Cotton Exchange is an international raw material organisation, which together with 16 other cotton exchanges worldwide, ensures contractually correct dealings in the cotton trade. The “constitution” for the cotton trade includes, for example, its own jurisdiction and the instruments for settling differences of opinion between the contractual parties on the quality of the delivered product. Clear, neutral rules are essential for the trade in a product that is produced in over 80 countries and is constantly changing in terms of price and quality. The Rules of the International Cotton Association in Liverpool were adopted in 2006. The aim is worldwide uniform regulation. Our members, from approximately 30 countries, are recruited from all parties with an interest in the cotton trade and range from producers through traders to processors, i.e. spinners and weavers.

In the age of globalisation and altered trading structures, it remains a great challenge for us to represent the interests of the cotton trade at national and international level. We are facing up to this, among other things, by providing the technology and the know-how for cotton testing, through international harmonisation of trading rules, as well through cooperation / amalgamation with other organisations.

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