Cotton
Since its founding and until today, the Company aims to please its customers and to produce products that are aligned with the buyer's needs.
Thrakika Ekkokkistiria S.A. has been the main supplier of large business groups in Greece until the end of the '90s, at the time when Greece maintained a powerful textile manufacturing industry. It offered solutions from the field all the way to the finished clothing product, such as the production of clothing from organic cotton for a well-known American sports apparel brand.
With the growth of the text manufacturing industry in Turkey, Thrakika Ekkokkistiria S.A. was the first ginning mill to export products there, establishing very good relations with the largest spinning mills in Turkey.
In recent years, the company collaborates almost exclusively with large commercial houses (merchants / traders) that buy cotton from all over the world and sell globally. This is a privilege for Thrakika Ekkokkistiria S.A., as these companies collaborate with only the best ginning businesses in the country and offer security and premium trading relations.
In this way, the company is able to offer products with increased added value and its goal is to offer its cotton with a trade name that will be recognized by international cotton traders as well as by the next players in the chain of global textile manufacturing. The company’s trademarked cotton that is already recognized internationally is Cotton+.
Cotton+ has several characteristics that add value, such as:
- Higher quality
- Accurate classification
- Sustainability
- Certification
- Traceability
Cottonseed
The main ginning by-product is cottonseed, as 50% of the weight of seed cotton comprises of just the seeds.
In Greece, one part is sold to Greek seed oil mills, where it is converted to cottonseed oil (raw material for margarine and biodiesel) and cotton meal, or it is sold directly as animal feed. The largest part is exported to Europe to be used as animal feed.
Thrakika Ekkokkistiria exports the entirety of the production mainly to European countries such as Italy and Spain. Smaller quantities are exported to Arabic countries and Japan.
The main requirement for the export of cottonseed is its good quality. If its moisture content exceeds 13% then in a short period or time fermentation begins and its quality is degraded.
For this reason, the company passes the entirety of the cottonseed production through dryers, controlling and stabilizing moisture below 10%. Later, the cottonseed is stored in ventilated storage areas where its temperature is constantly monitored (an increased temperature means that fermentation is taking place).
The drying-storing system developed many years ago by the company, has helped it establish really good reputation in the cottonseed market and made it so no distribution problems occur. In recent years the company is collaborating with the most well-known international animal feed companies.