Broomhead says the first target of offering physical traceability to country of origin was partly an interim step on the way to full supply chain traceability, but also a response to the requirements on brands posed by new legislation.
That was delivered for some countries in November with more in the pipeline. Next January, Better Cotton will launch a new claims framework which will include guidance on labels for products that contain Better Cotton.
Traceability to farm level is still some way off, but Broomhead says Better Cotton will be able to offer traceability down to region level by the end of next year, and back to large farms within two to three years.
“It’s really important to note that we work with a really diverse range of farmers. Traceability to large farms is already possible in many countries as the first mile is highly mechanised and digitised,” she explained.
“If you look at our 2022/23 harvest results, about two thirds of Better Cotton came from large farms which is why we’re able to offer this earlier, but where it will take more time is in a smallholder context.
“We already collect data from smallholders, but the data collection is largely analogue due to varying levels of access to technology, literacy, digital literacy, etc. To offer traceability at scale for smallholders, we first need to digitise the first mile.”
To achieve this, Better Cotton earlier this year launched a programme with more than 150,000 smallholder farmers in Pakistan to streamline their transition to digital data collection. A similar project is planned for India.
We knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy project. But we did deliver on time and we have also exceeded the launch targets
Broomhead adds: “We knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy project. But we did deliver on time and we have also exceeded the launch targets that we’ve set for traceability.
“We have [traceable] cotton already available from India, China, Pakistan, Turkey, Mali, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; we will soon have cotton available from Mozambique, the US and Egypt.
“Even though it’s country of origin today, our roadmap has always been to get down to farm level traceability in the digital sense, not just in terms of the processes that we track on the ground.
“I think ultimately this will lead to farmers being better connected into the supply chain, and ultimately open up opportunities such as direct sourcing arrangements between retailers and farmers.”
Global supply chain expert Tim Wilson, who’s delivered consulting services to large corporates, start-ups and NGOs for more than 20 years, said he believed full traceability of cotton was “absolutely possible but technically challenging”.
I’m anxious we don’t tar and feather Better Cotton for attempting to do the right thing
He added: “I’m anxious that we don’t tar and feather Better Cotton for attempting to do the right thing. And then realising it’s substantially more difficult than they thought.
“I am deeply, deeply unsurprised it’s taken longer than they thought. Because I told them it would. I think it’s going to be incremental, it’ll be in the single digit percentages for the next few years.”
