Izmir Group

Summary of Izmir Group

A loosely connected group of eighteen Third World cotton-producing nations founded after the April 1981 publication of a report by the UN Commission for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that documented that 90 percent of the world's cotton trade is controlled by fifteen multinational corporations, and that barely 2 to 15 percent of the value of a cotton product is paid to the producer, whereas approximately 40 percent goes to the retailer. Inasmuch as 80 percent of the world's cotton is produced in developing nations, the Izmir Group countries have called for the formation of an international cotton organization to regulate the flow of cotton into world markets, thereby stabilizing prices and improving producer income.

See International Commodity Agreement.

(Main Author: William J. Miller)