Pima Cotton

Background

According to Supima, the promotional organization of the American Pima cotton growers:

"Pima cotton is a generic name for extra-long staple (ELS) cotton grown in the USA, Australia, Israel, Peru and in very limited production in a few other locations around the world. Pima is from the gossypium barbadense species, compared to gossypium hirsutum to which upland cotton belongs. The primary differences between Pima (ELS growths) cotton and upland cotton are staple length (fiber length) and strength of the fiber. In the world cotton trade, cotton is considered to be ELS or Pima if the staple length is 1 inch and 3/8 or longer. Its strength and uniformity measurements are considerably higher than those of upland cotton."

According to Cotton Incorporated: "There are six official grades (grades "1" through "6") for American Pima color and six for leaf. All are represented by physical standards. There is a descriptive standard for cotton which is below grade for color or leaf. A different chart is used to convert American Pima fiber length from 100ths to 32nds of an inch. This chart is below."

American Pima Length Conversion Chart
Inches	32nds
1.20 and lower	40
1.21 -1.25	42
1.26 -1.31	44
1.32 -1.36	46
1.37 -1.42	48
1.43 -1.47	50
1.48 and above	52

Regulations

A product may not be labelled "pima" cotton unless it is genuine pima cotton.

According to the FTA (FTC publication Calling It Cotton: Labeling and Advertising Cotton Products):

The fiber content statement may include the name of a type of cotton, cotton trademark, or a term that implies the presence of a type of cotton, as long as it's not deceptive. If you use a cotton name, trademark, or other term that implies the presence of a type of cotton, the generic fiber name "cotton" must be used with it. For instance, "100% Sea Island Cotton," "50% Pima Cotton, 50% Upland Cotton," "85% Egyptian Cotton, 15% Silk."

The FTC has taken action, under the Textile Products Identification Act, with regard to products falsely labelled as pima cotton. In the case of products labelled as 100% pima cotton but which were in fact of 6% to 50% pima blended with other types of cotton, the offending company had to pay a $360,000 FTC civil penalty.