COTTON USA to focus on responsible sourcing at Heimtextil

The booth’s central theme is responsible cotton sourcing throughout the supply chain, underscored by the Cotton LEADS program, a joint effort of the U.S. and Australian cotton industries.

At the Heimtextil trade show, suppliers, textile manufacturers and retailers can find out more about Cotton LEADS and see for themselves how they can use this program to easily source reliable and responsible raw material.

Cotton LEADS offers companies across the entire cotton supply chain the confidence that their raw material is responsibly produced and identified. As Cotton Council International (CCI) Executive Director Kevin Latner emphasizes, the challenge is to continually optimize responsible cotton production practices.

Cotton LEADS answers the world market's demand for responsibly-produced cotton that is also available in the volumes required. The chief prerequisite for the production of sustainable products is traceability along the supply chain. This begins with the fiber. In the United States and Australia, comprehensive tracking and identification systems for cotton production are in place and are also the basis for tracing every product back to its place of origin.

CCI, the National Cotton Council of America, Cotton Incorporated and Cotton Australia founded Cotton LEADS to promote awareness of the responsible cotton production practices undertaken in the United States and Australia.

These include extremely stringent national production regulations (in the United States cotton is subject to the production regulations for food crops), monitored reporting, promotion of the implementation of best practices, and constant data collation and evaluation – all with a view toward continuous optimization.

Both the United States and Australia are among the leading suppliers of world-class cotton fiber on the international market. Together, the two countries account for approximately 17 percent of global cotton production and close to 40 percent of global cotton exports.

The United States is the foremost cotton exporter on the world market. The current volume of so-called identified or certified cotton fiber available worldwide is in the region of 4 percent – insufficient for the global market.

From now on, Cotton LEADS will offer retailers, brands and manufacturers that operate with large volumes the capability to source responsibly produced fiber.