Bremer Baumwollbörse Bremen Cotton Exchange

The Bremer Baumwollboerse was founded in 1872 and was created to maintain and to promote the interests of all those connected with the international cotton trade. Today the membership of the Bremen Cotton Exchange consists of 201 members residing in Germany, Europe and overseas; Membership in the Bremer Baumwollbörse indicates that a firm is of good standing, of moral integrity for fulfilling its commitments, and of financial responsibility. Twelve comparable organizations world-wide form the Committee for International Co-operation between Cotton Associations (CICCA).

The large international membership facilitates the fulfilment of important functions, i.e. representing the interests of the members on national and international levels, fostering the cotton business and offering a neutral and reliable basis for the solution of disputes.

Cotton is produced and traded in more than 70 countries with different social and legal systems. Quality and price of the commodity can vary from season to season. Neutral international trading rules balancing in a fair way the interests of seller and buyer are essential for the business.

Therefore the International Rules of the Bremen Cotton Exchange are an important basis for the cotton contracts concluded as well domestically and internationally. The rules refer to the trade in raw cotton, linters and waste from man-made fibers of fibre blends and include instruments for the solution of disputes like

Quality and Technical Arbitration

Quality dispute can be settled by two sworn classers who make a binding judgement on the value of the cotton delivered; the award of the arbitrators can be appealed once. All other disputes which may arise out of a cotton contract can be decided by a technical arbitration procedure.

Through these procedures contract disputes will be settled professionally, rapidly and for both parties also intenationally binding, and thus avoiding lengthy and costly cases at the law courts of the various countries. An UN convention from 1958 enables the international enforcement in many countries.

Fiber Tests

Since manual classing of cotton does not always provide sufficient information about the fibre properties for the processing with modern spinning and weaving technique it is supported by laboratory quality tests at the Fibre Institute Bremen. This research institute is the laboratory of the Cotton Exchange and is equipped with modern testing instruments for raw cotton, among others a cotton test line - High Volume Instrument Test Line (HVI) and electron scanning microscope.

  

Every other year the Bremen Cotton Exchange and the Fibre Institute jointly perform the
International Cotton Conference.

Information and Seminar

Information and advice to members are furnished through various publications, such as the Annual Report or the fortnightly issued Bremen Cotton Report, specific circulars, and other informative material. Via these publications the Bremen Cotton Exchange informs regularly about the national and international cotton market and publishes statistics and market analyses. Technical issues like quality differences, transport and insurance questions, packaging of cotton, value differences etc. are discussed in the relevant committees.

For the education of trainees Cotton Seminars are performed and comprehensive cotton classing as well as other subjects relating to the raw material are taught.
 

Membership

 Ordinary and Associated Members 

1. The Members of the Bremer Baumwollbörse are either Ordinary or Associated Members.
2. Ordinary Members may be:
   1. any firm registered in a commercial or comparable registry in an EU or EEA-country carrying on business in the cotton trade (Member Firms);
      
   2. any firm registered in an EU or EEA-country and engaged in the first stage of processing cotton, cotton waste, and linters (Member Firms);
   3. any legal representative of a firm which is an Ordinary Member of the Bremer Baumwollbörse (Personal Members). A Personal Member may remain a Personal Member even if he has retired as a legal representative from the firm which is an Ordinary Member; this holds true also in the case that this firm ceases to be an Ordinary Member of the Bremer Baumwollbörse.
3. Associated Members may be:
   1. any registered non-German firm carrying on business in the cotton trade;
   2. any registered non-German firm engaged in the first stage of processing cotton, cotton waste, and linters.
4. Non-German firms from EU or EEA-countries may chose between Ordinary and Associate Membership.

 Admission       Application form   (Acrobat© PDF format)

1. Applications for membership shall be submitted in writing to the President. They must be supported by three Ordinary Members.
2. The Board of Directors shall decide on the admission to membership.

 Membership Fee