Report urges brands to build farmer ties for better cotton traceability
Ani Wells and Anne Oudard released the fourth installment of their five-year #WhoMadeMyCotton investigation on World Cotton Day, arguing that cotton traceability requires brands to know the farmers who grow it. Even with certified cotton backed by transaction certificates, tracing the fiber back through the supply chain took hours of painstaking investigation.
Gins pay farmers or intermediaries for cotton and hold essential origin data, but their records often lack a standardized format unless they operate within a certified cotton system. Without standardized gin data, information rarely travels downstream, forcing brands to undertake large-scale, unrealistic investigations to trace cotton to its source. The report recommends that brands build lasting relationships with farming communities and the wider network of field workers, input suppliers, agronomists and local traders to obtain full traceability.
“Farmers don’t operate in isolation,” Anne Oudard, former designer and lead of sourcing and supply chain at Cotton Diaries said.
“The information doesn’t get passed on, and so when at the end of the supply chain you want to retrieve this information, you have to go through a massive investigation that is unrealistic at scale,” Anne Oudard, former designer and lead of sourcing and supply chain at Cotton Diaries said.
The #WhoMadeMyCotton investigation started five years ago to map the origins of cotton used in denim, and this report marks its fourth step. The project relies on field visits and conversations in Brazil, India and Turkey to gather insights.
What we know
Published on World Cotton Day
Field visits and conversations in Brazil, India, Turkey
Five-year #WhoMadeMyCotton investigation
Farmers don’t operate in isolation
Information doesn’t get passed on, leading to massive investigation unrealistic at scale