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India to corner sizeable share of global organic cotton trade

08 Oct '09
3 min read

Dr Selvam Daniel, Managing Director, ECOCERT India, which is an affiliate of a French global certification company of the same name, recently said that, Indian textile companies would corner a sizeable share in the global organic textile industry with India emerging as the top organic cotton-producing country.

In 2007-08, global organic cotton production increased by 152 per cent to 145,872 metric tons or 668,581 bales and the area under cotton cultivation increased to 161,000 hectares in top organic cotton-producing countries like Syria, India, Turkey and China.

Fibre2fashion spoke exclusively to Mr Daniel and asked him about the reasons for India emerging as the top organic cotton-producing and exporting country, to which he said, “The Indian natural textile fibre industry has a great potential to cater to the organic consumer demand worldwide because of the following intrinsic factors-

1) A substantial production base: India produces 600,000 bales of cotton and has a latent production capacity for organic jute. This places India in a very strong position to supply processed organic cotton products to the global markets.

2) Good technical infrastructure: The Indian natural textile fibre industry has the latest technical infrastructure to produce high quality garments at a reasonable cost, hence helping India achieve a competitive advantage over other countries in supplying high quality and wide range of organic textile products to the consuming markets.

3) Good fair trade destination: The organic textile industry has strong linkages with the social standards of textile production. India has the best social welfare measures among the developing countries to meet the stringent social standards required to produce and process organic fibres. This makes India a suitable and desired destination for the production and processing of organic fibres.

Next we asked him about the current production of organic cotton in India as well as the globe to which he answered by saying, “The current production of organic cotton in India is about 600,000 bales. This is about 15 percent of the global production which is about 40,00,000 bales.

To conclude the interview we asked him about the role his organization plays in the certification of organic cotton, to which he explained by saying, “ECOCERT is a France based organic certification agency and has been certifying organic products since 1991. We are now a global network of companies having our presence in 120 countries worldwide”.

“In the textile commodity chain, ECOCERT certifies natural fibres for both organic and fair trade standards. We are certifying from the fibre to the garment according to standards like Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS), Organic Exchange (OE) Standards and ECOCERT Fair Trade (EFT) standards.

“At ECOCERT we believe that Organic and Fair trade must go hand in hand. ECOCERT Fair Trade (EFT) standards are the only standards in the world for having mandated the organic certification as prerequisite for fair trade certification. ECOCERT does promotion of organic lifestyles through certification of organic food, cosmetics and textiles. As a part of this promotion we are also involved in the promotion of ethical fashion and such other organic lifestyle events”, he concluded by saying.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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