BCI hosts forum for Australian cotton farmers
23/05/2019
More than 100 brands, retailers and campaign groups from across Australia attended to learn about the country’s sustainable cotton industry from cotton scientists, farmers and industry leaders.
Michael Kobori, who has led sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co since 2001, was one of the main speakers at the event. “Australia plays a crucial role in sustainable cotton globally,” he said. “It’s great to see Australian cotton tackling important issues on the farm such as climate change, water use efficiency, pesticides and biodiversity. I’m encouraged by the Australian brands who are supporting BCI, it would be great to see more brands cotton on to the idea.”
The market programme manager at representative body for Australia’s cotton growing industry, Cotton Australia, Brooke Summers, said after the forum that the cotton industry there invests more than US$13.5 million per year in research and development, with a large proportion of that focused on sustainability. “Science and innovation have underpinned the cotton industry’s environmental achievements, which include being the most land-use efficient cotton industry in the world,” she said.
With the drought set to worsen in New South Wales and Queensland, the forum also heard from a panel of cotton farmers who, despite current conditions, have all reached full certification under the BCI standard. However, Brooke Summers warned that drought seems certain to affect the amount of BCI cotton that will be available from Australia next season, especially if there are no substantial winter rains. She said: “We’re currently predicting a crop of less than 20% normal production.”
In spite of that, she said farmers’ participation in the Cotton Australia sustainability standard is “at record levels”, with 80% of the country’s cotton farmers involved in that programme.
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