High Volume Cotton Classing Instruments

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service, Cotton and Tobacco Program intends to negotiate a sole source contract with Uster Technologies located in Knoxville, Tennessee for the purchase, maintenance and software updates of high volume instruments for classing cotton. Maintenance for the instruments purchased under this contract shall not exceed 10 years. Uster Technolgoies is the sole manufacturer of the High Volume Instrument for classing cotton. The NAICS code for this procurement is 334513 with a size standard of 500 employees. This is a notice of intent and is not a request for competitive quotations or proposals. Firms that believe they can provide equal or superior products/servics are encouraged to identify themselves and provide a substantantive statement with descriptive literature and any other supportinformation to the contracting Officer by the clsoing date of this notice. All information received will be considered by the Government to determin if more than one firm can meet the governments requirements and is capable of providing equial or superior products/services. All responsses must be in writing and should be emailed to BeverlyS.Brown@ams.usda.gov.