DNA Tagging Improves Traceability In Cotton Supply Chain

Market News

DNA Tagging Improves Traceability In Cotton Supply Chain

The world's most popular textile fibre has been linked to slavery in Uzbekistan and thousands of farmers committing suicide in India. Indeed, programmes such as the Better Cotton Initiative and Cotton Connect are doing remarkable work to alleviate cotton's impact on human rights and the environment. One company, however wants to go even further in guaranteeing that its cotton comes from a reliable and responsible source.

PimaCott, owned by a large Indian supplier, says it has a solution. The company partnered with Applied DNA Sciences, an American biotechnology firm, to treat its cotton so that it can be easily scanned and identified. Molecules with DNA tags are added to cotton during the ginning process, so someone on a company's supply chain team is able to track the authenticity of the cotton from the field to the store.

Applied DNA Sciences says its technology also allows for "fibre typing." This allows supply chain stakeholders to authenticate a bolt of textiles or a garment as a genuine varietal of cotton - which, in PimaCott's case, is Pima: the high-end cotton grown in California's San Joaquin Valley. From a business perspective, this is critical for the Central Valley's Pima cotton farmers, who are subjected to far stricter environmental and labour standards in the Golden State than other countries, or even other US states. The problem is that consumers who seek textiles made from coveted Californian or Egyptian cotton can be misled by wayward suppliers. Last fall, Walmart and Target were nailed by lawsuits alleging the retailers mislead consumers about a line of "100%" Egyptian cotton sheets, made in India.

Walmart in turn offered customer refunds, but the episode raised questions about the authenticity of high-quality products in other stores. And of course, conscious consumers were left wondering if that ethical set of sheets or shirt had fibers that traveled from cotton suppliers with dubious labour or environmental practices. This technology shows promise, and could eventually help other organisations that are trying to scale fair trade or responsibly-sourced cotton. But it will take a while for DNA tagging to score widespread acceptance.

As Fast Company reported, these tagged molecules need to be added to cotton at its point of origin. From the point of view of farmers, many of whom face thin margins and other risks such as bad weather or global slumps in commodity prices, DNA tagging could come across as yet another expense.

But PimaCott says it is helping cotton growers with the upfront costs. And if farmers see the value in having their crops verified and prevented from becoming blended with lower-grade cotton, we could see an industry transformed - and down the road, witness improved traceability in other agricultural supply chains as well.