Organic cotton demand grows as production plummets
09/11/2012
The not-for-profit organisation says that 81% of respondents to its survey said they were looking to increase their organic cotton programmes, while its production fell 37% in 2011 against 2010 – the first time it has declined in 10 years.
It attributed the fall can to a number of factors, including a crisis in the availability and purity of the seeds, the result of the increasing dominance of GMO cotton; continued economic uncertainty, which keeps commodity prices down and endangers farmers’ stability; and a shift by some companies from established programmes, such as organic and fair trade, to newer initiatives offering a lower barrier to entry without fair prices associated with the initiatives.
“Brands and retailers all report that they anticipate increasing the options in their sustainable cotton portfolios - organic in particular. Yet, with a few notable exceptions, they are not taking steps to enter into more transparent and engaged relationships within the value chain down to the farm-gate level,” Textile Exchange said.
“Farmers, without clear direction from brands and retailers are increasingly choosing to plant different crops or shift towards other cotton options like BCI, where they see a clear demand.”
The report includes a “call to action for responsible businesses - those that genuinely want to reduce their impact on the environment and improve socioeconomic conditions around the world while optimising investments in organic cotton agriculture”.
It added: “What is abundantly clear is that brands and retailers lack adequate systems to capture the growing level of complexity involved in using sustainable materials.”
Sportswear giants Nike and Puma are among the top 10 users of organic cotton. Outdoorwear company Patagonia also has a commitment. Its director of environmental strategy, Jill Dumain, said: “My key advice for companies wanting to integrate organic cotton into their range would be to just start, but to do it in a way that what you adopt today, you’re not going to drop tomorrow. Start at a slow and steady pace, and stay committed to your environmental decisions.”
Organic agriculture is based on the principles of agroecology and replaces agrichemicals with natural methods and botanical products for building soil fertility, water quality and efficiencies, and for controlling pests.
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