More than 60 delegates from 58 businesses, NGOs and cotton certifiers have completed a tour of Australia’s cotton supply industry in Northern New South Wales this week.
Hosted by Cotton Australia, the three-day tour covered farmers and organisations within the cotton supply chain around Narrabri (near Tamworth), including Cotton Seed Distributors, CSIRO and one of Australian Food and Fibre’s own cotton gin, as well as local cotton farmers such as Kilmarnock and Merced Farming.
A majority of the delegates included local and international fashion brands and retailers.
Local brand delegates included Rip Curl, Big W, The Iconic, Workwear Group, Country Road, R.M.Williams, Target and Citizen Wolf, alongside international players such as Uniqlo, Nike, LVMH, Lululemon, Lacoste, Versace, Hanes and Puma.
This is the largest group of tour delegates hosted by Cotton Australia, which had originally started in 2015 with just four brands.
“Our farmers are very proud of what they do,” Cotton Australia CEO Adam Kay said. “It's such a convoluted supply chain with cotton, so bringing the people at one end - the brands and retailers - out to meet the farmers at the other end, cutting out all those people in the middle, is a very special thing.
“We do our environmental reports, our sustainability reports, but seeing is believing. Coming out, meeting the people and doing on-the-ground validation is a good way to show people that what we're saying is true.”
This year’s tour was initiated with a full-day Australian Cotton Forum conference in Sydney on Tuesday, April 30, attended by more than 260 industry people.
Ragtrader was also invited to attend the tour.