China accelerates Weilai Cotton initiative
Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post (SCMP), owned by China’s Alibaba since 2016, has reported that plans for Weilai Cotton (meaning future cotton) have progressed recently.
First initiated by Beijing-based Zhongnong Guoji, a cotton vertical service provider, two years ago, Weilai reportedly received a significant boost earlier this year when China Fashion Association and Modern Seeds Development Fund, both state-backed organisations, joined its ranks.
One of the Chinese project’s coordinators, Zhao Yan, told the SCMP: “It is time to form our own national standards.”
Weilai will focus its energies on partnering with Chinese brands before looking outside of the country for members, Zhao said.
So far, 32 members have been recruited from the mainland’s westernmost province, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), plus “some” domestic fashion brands, secretary general of the Xinjiang Digital Cotton Research Centre, Luo Yan, commented.
“We hope to improve the overall cotton quality in Xinjiang through this brand, as the cotton quality in Xinjiang is not as good as that of the US and Australia,” Luo added. (According to reports, the Chinese government has already offered subsidies in order to better the quality of product.)
Expanding on how Weilai will work in practice, Zhao explained: “By scanning a QR code, you will be able to see which farm the cotton is grown in, which cotton processing factory and yarn plant it went to next - you can even trace how much fabric was purchased in the same batch.”
Image: Unsplash. Credit: Nancy Yang
