Noble Group, a global supply chain manager of agricultural, industrial and energy products, has entered the international cotton marketing and supply chain business with the recent creation of its cotton division headquartered in Singapore and operating under the brand of ‘Noble Cotton’.

Noble Cotton is headed by Mark Allen who is based in Singapore. Allen has over 17 years experience in the international cotton industry in both building and managing businesses and holds a MBA from the University of New England.

He joins Noble from Ecom Agroindustrial Corp where, from 1999, he was responsible for its Australian grain and cotton business, China marketing and office set up, Singapore cotton trading desk, and warehouse activities in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Before that, Allen was with Colly International for seven years, responsible for its China office and marketing business, Hong Kong regional marketing office and US cotton trading businesses. Before that, he was a cotton farmer in Australia and California.

Noble plans to expand the cotton division organically and utilise the many advantageous synergies already existing in the group worldwide to maximise growth and opportunities and to acquire industry assets that offer strategic advantages and provide first class marketing alternatives and supply chain management for clients, the company claims.  Noble Cotton offers cotton producers and consumers a world class counterpart and a strong commitment to service and reliability.

The major producers and exporters of raw cotton are Brazil, India, Central Asia, West Africa and the US with the single largest producer and consumer being China. Most world cotton exports are consumed in the Asia region with China being the largest single importer of cotton.

The creation of Noble Cotton is an additional step in continuing with the Noble Group supply chain international growth strategy while gaining substantial leverage and advantages from existing internal synergies, claims the group. These synergies include crop financing, trade financing, warehousing, logistics and distribution across Noble existing supply chains worldwide.

In addition, many of Noble’s existing grain producers also produce cotton, and many existing offices of Noble are already in cotton origins or destinations.