TRACK YOUR COTTON, FROM FARM TO MILL
Traceability has become increasingly important to brands and retailers seeking transparent supply chains and assurances that the cotton used in products has been grown with high environmental and social standards. The cotton supply chain is incredibly complex and traceability remains a challenge for textile businesses because they often have:
- limited visibility of supply chains, often not beyond Tiers 1 or 2
- multiple supply chains for cotton products
- difficulty getting information about where products are made from suppliers
- push back from suppliers reluctant to be transparent about their supply chain partners
The good news is that should you start sourcing Australian cotton, there is full traceability in place from the farm to the spinning mill. Every bale of Australian cotton comes with a unique identifier barcode that can trace the bale back to where it was ginned, and the area it was grown.
Cotton Australia assists brands and retailers to establish Australian cotton supply chains wherever possible, and also provides advice as to the types of traceability evidence and auditing procedures that can be requested through the supply chain to provide some level of assurance that the cotton you're sourcing is Australian cotton. Cotton Australia can also provide traceability checks on Australian cotton bales when provided with the bale numbers.
As an industry, Australian cotton is investigating new technical solutions to traceability that may in future mean all Australian cotton can be scientifically traced at every stage of the production process.