The Seam's Cotton Marketplace
Created in 2000, The Seam provides PCCA members with access to an online trading system to market their cotton and is another evolution of PCCA's original TELCOT™ technology conceived and introduced in 1975.
It began in May 2000 when PCCA announced the signing of a letter of intent to form a joint venture with Allenberg Cotton Co., a division of the Louis Dreyfus Corporation, Dunavant Enterprises and Cargill's Hohenberg division. The purpose of the joint venture was to establish a new company offering the latest Internet trading system for U.S. agricultural commodities.
In June 2000, the initiative gained momentum with the addition of the two largest cotton consuming textile manufacturers in the United States: Avondale Mills of Monroe, GA, and Parkdale Mills of Gastonia, NC. The formation of the new company, The Seam, became official on Nov. 6, 2000, when formal documents were signed by PCCA and its new partners.
Online trading began Dec. 8, 2000 via The Seam's grower-to-business (G2B) feature. On Feb. 8, 2001, the new company launched its business-to-business (B2B) marketplace where merchants can trade cotton anonymously among themselves. Since that time, additional investors, including many major U.S. cotton merchants and cotton marketing cooperatives, have joined the effort.
Through The Seam, PCCA members continue to have access to electronic marketing for their crops. More important, The Seam can offer a greater number of cotton buyers to bid for the cotton offered for sale by PCCA members, ensuring the most competitive price possible.