Organic cotton is becoming more traceable, pilot program is making strides

Experience proves tracing materials is complicated and therefor a complex task. However, the general consensus is that transparency and sustainability within the fashion industry should increase. The Organic Cotton Traceability Pilot program is an example of a project with which the fashion industry tries to answer to this demand. The project is aimed at improving the traceability of organic raw materials in the textile supply chain, and it has recently reached a milestone in its efforts.

The pilot is the first of its kind in the fashion industry. Several technologies are combined to trace and identify the origin, purity and distribution of organic cotton. The milestone is the fact that currently the program is able to trace organic cotton from farm to gin. Logical next steps are to have the ability to trace the cotton from gin to consumer, and then prove the process works at scale.

The project has multiple stakeholders; Bext360 is the lead technical partner. Haelixa, Tailorlux and IN-Code Technologies are responsible for logistics, planning and technology and Pratibha Syntex conducts field trials in India. Partners from the textile industry are Fashion for Good, C&A Foundation, Organic Cotton Accelerator, Kering, Zalando, PVH Corp. and C&A.