27 April 2022
Speaking at the State workshop on sustainability in cotton
On April, 22nd Annekatrin Mohr, Sustainability Manager at BRANDS Fashion was invited to speak virtually at the State workshop on sustainability in cotton jointly organized by GIZ India and the Department of Agriculture of the Government of Gujarat, India.
The workshop participants were partners of the GIZ cotton project, including companies as well as other stakeholders such as agronomists from the State Cotton Research Institute and state drip irrigation organizations. Senior officials from the Department of Agriculture, Government of Gujarat, and other interested parties were present.
We presented our new cotton sourcing project: From the field to the fanshop to the audience. While securing long term availability of organic cotton, we invest in the potential to improve income opportunities for Indian farmer families through supporting them in the conversion period of growing cotton. In the project we are cooperating with 7 soccer clubs and the GIZ to finance the support and training of 450 farmers in Gujarat, India. For this project we work with our long-time partner RDFC- the organic cotton cooperative in Gujarat. The organic cotton will be GOTS and Fairtrade certified. As soon as we can buy Cotton in Conversion from the project we can support the farmers by paying a higher price for the Cotton in Conversion compared to the market price for conventional cotton.
The workshop participants were inspired by our commitment to increase the availability of organic cotton in the market and our approach to work in collaboration with direct producers. They were interested how the fairtrade system works and highlighted the importance of branding organic cotton products differently.
