USDA raises cotton classification services fee

USDA raises cotton classification services fee    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service has increased its cotton classification services fee from $1.45 per bale to $1.65 per bale for the 2004 cotton crop, effective July 1.
   The use of the classification services is voluntary. There are about 35,000 cotton growers in the United States that use the USDA cotton classing services. The 2004 cotton crop is estimated at 18.3 million bales and the number of bales to be classed by the USDA is expected to be about 17.6 million bales.
   USDA said the impact of the fee, which helps cover the cost to administer the service, “will not affect competition in the marketplace.”
   Based on the average price paid to growers for cotton from the 2002 crop of 44.5 cents per pound, 500-pound bales of cotton are worth about $222 each. “The user fee for classification services, $1.65 per bale, is less than 1 percent of the value of an average bale of cotton,” USDA said.