Showing fibre traceability is better than telling, former PM says
A former prime minister of New Zealand, Sir John Key, has said traceability technology provider Oritain is able to show rather than just tell customers that wool, cotton and other products meet their requirements.
Since the start of 2023, Sir John Key, who was prime minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016, has been a member of Oritain’s board. He is now the company’s chairman.
In recent comments, he said the Dunedin-based company’s technology, which uses forensics and statistics to identify an ‘origin fingerprint’ for fibres, can give customers and regulators certainty.
He said it was not enough to rely on the information that becomes available at the final point of a database. He added that Oritain’s practice of carrying out testing at various stages before that was a way of showing, not just telling customers and regulators that information about textile fibres and other products is correct.
“We can prove with a very high degree of certainty the place it came from and that it was harvested in a way that is sustainable,” he said.
