Arise IIP, FibreTrace partner for Africa's 1st traceable cotton chain

29 Nov '21

3 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

Arise IIP, a pan-African developer and operator of world-class industrial parks and FibreTrace, the world leader in traceable fibre technology, have recently announced a new pilot programme enabling spinner-to-garment traceability for Arise IIP’s highly anticipated Republic of Benin spinning facilities at the Glo-Djigbe Industrial Zone (GDIZ).

A groundbreaking achievement for the fast-emerging African textile sector, the partnership between FibreTrace and Arise IIP will bring full traceability to the first of their kind, vertically integrated mills in the Republic of Benin to trace, verify and audit the lifecycle of their garments from spinning mills to stores, sharing the journey of Benin premium cotton with end consumers.

The partnership between Arise IIP and FibreTrace will position Benin at the forefront of textile innovation and technology, improving visibility, resilience, and securing economic competitiveness. It will create a thriving value chain for African agriculture as the country is expected to have 98,000 tonnes lint cotton processing capacity per annum by the end of 2023, FibreTrace said in a press release.

Smallholder farmers are estimated to produce around 30 per cent of total crop output globally, making them the foundation of global agriculture and the food sector. The programme will make its debut in the Fall of 2022 when GDIZ spinning, fabric and garment production facilities are anticipated to start operations.

“Arise IIP will now be able to guarantee the sustainability of the premium cotton transformed on its industrial platforms across Africa thanks to the technology deployed by FibreTrace. Across all its industrial parks, Arise IIP aims to lead the way towards the sustainable transformation of local resources, where every stage of production is transparent for the benefit of local farmers and the end consumer," Gagan Gupta, founder and CEO Arise IIP.

Given FibreTrace success in other cotton growing regions, it is anticipated that this technology will be adopted at scale across all textile processing sites and facilities in Benin and across the African sub-continent. The technology will provide transparency and true custody of supply chain solutions for brands and suppliers across the globe working with African manufacturers and supporting the growth of best practices in agriculture on the continent.

“We’re truly excited about this partnership because it is the first step in making African grown cotton more visible to the global textile industry, and affords these farmers, who dedicate their land and livelihoods to growing this fibre, the opportunity to take a more prevalent role. We look forward to the day that the primary impact data from African farmers is combined with traceability to showcase Africa’s contribution to a better future for the textile industry,” Shannon Mercer, CEO FibreTrace.

To guarantee the traceability of the cotton, FibreTrace embeds luminescent pigments on the fibre at the spinning mill. The pigments, indestructible throughout the entire textile processing cycle, can be read and tracked at every stage of the supply chain, and each audit is recorded on the blockchain making the information secured, accessible and irrefutable.

The events of COP26 and rising pressure from governments, legislative bodies and consumers for brands and retailers to commit to greater climate action and take full accountability for their sustainability progress, have made clear that transparency and traceability are essential to leading dialogue and meaningful change for the global textile industry.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)