In an effort to
continuously drive increased traceability for Better Cotton, BCI is introducing
user accounts for fabric mills to the Better Cotton Tracer. Initially,
this will be run as a pilot. The change will mean that for the first time
fabric mills will be part of the Better Cotton chain of traceability,
allowing BCI retailers and brands to trace their cotton purchases more
accurately and transparently.
In 2013, BCI, in
partnership with ChainPoint, introduced an online
traceability platform for use by ginners, spinners and retailers to record
purchases and sales of Better Cotton – the Better Cotton
Tracer.
The new pilot
category gives fabric mills access to the Better Cotton Tracer for one year.
This access will allow retailer members of BCI to track the use of Better Cotton
more easily as it moves through the supply chain, increasing transparency. In
some cases, retailers will have full visibility from field to fabric for
the first time. The updates to the system will not yet provide the option of
‘Better Cotton Products,’ but do take BCI one step closer to the possibility of
full physical traceability becoming an option for Retailer and Brand Members
hopefully in 2016.
Ruchira Joshi, BCI
Director of Programmes – Demand, says: “BCI aims to recruit 250 fabric mills as
users in 2015, before assessing the success of the fabric mill pilot category.
We hope that by extending the use of the Better Cotton Tracer across different
actors, BCI will contribute to more trusting relationships between these actors
and a more transparent cotton sector as a whole.”
BCI launches the
online Better Cotton Tracer back in August 2013 according to the
company’s announcement on January 14th, 2014.
In August 2013,
following eight months of developing the system, BCI launched the Better
Cotton Tracer (BCT). The BCT is a system used by traders, spinners and
retailers to record purchases and sales of Better Cotton. It tracks the
movement of Better Cotton volumes as it moves up the supply chain through a
centralized system of entering Better Cotton Credit Units (BCCU’s) into a
central database. In simple terms, the system checks volumes in and out in
every single step of the supply chain.
Training took place
at the annual Supply Chain Events in Turkey, Pakistan, India and China. They
started to see Better Cotton move through the system in September 2013, and by
December 2013, they saw the first activity on the BCT from their Retailer and
Brand members.
The Better
Cotton Initiative exists to make global cotton production better for
the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for
the sector’s future. BCI aims to transform cotton production worldwide by
developing Better Cotton as a sustainable mainstream
commodity.
To achieve this
mission, BCI works with a diverse range of stakeholders across the cotton supply
chain to promote measurable and continuing improvements for the environment,
farming communities and the economies of cotton-producing
areas.
Cotton is one of the world's
most important natural fibers. It is used by the majority of people on Earth
nearly every day. The fiber is obviously used for clothing but it is also used
in numerous other industries in one capacity or another. A case can be made
that the fiber supports the livelihoods of nearly 250 million people. Therefore
it is very important to the global economy.
If you are
interested in learning more about cotton, you may want to review the cotton
prices section of the Apparel Search fashion industry
guide.
Read the cotton
definition to learn more about this amazing fiber.
Research more about The Better Cotton Initiative.
Thank you for taking the time to read our textile industry blog post.
Learn all about fabric here on the Fashion Blog.
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