This initiative, known as the AbTF Transparency Standard, is designed to uphold transparency, ensure safety, and maintain reliability globally within the textile supply chain, extending from cotton cultivation to the final product.
Slated for launch in the first quarter of 2025, the independent verification standard aimed at overseeing the application and traceability of sustainable cotton certified under Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) and the Regenerative Cotton Standard (RCS).
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AbTF’s current tracking systems have been operational since 2018.
These systems monitor the production process to ensure that yarns, fabrics, and textiles are produced using cotton exclusively certified under CmiA or RCS.
AbTF senior project manager Gerlind Bäz, who oversees the integration of CmiA- and RCS-verified cotton into global supply chains, said: “The AbTF Transparency Standard sets a new benchmark for reliability and traceability in the textile industry.
“While brands and retailers can already rely on our current tracking system, which was established in 2018 and monitors whether yarns, fabrics, and textiles were produced exclusively using cotton verified under Cotton made in Africa or the Regenerative Cotton Standard, we are now going one step further. In future, independent auditors will regularly check whether the transparency requirements of the new standard are reliably adhered to in the supply chain.”
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By GlobalDataA pivotal feature of this standard is risk-based desktop audits by independent auditors who will scrutinise tracking-system data across all production stages along with relevant documents such as production reports and delivery notes.
Digital transaction documents (DTDs), another key component of the standard, will enable stakeholders to trace CmiA and RCS cotton through the supply chain. DTDs are created digitally and validated by independent auditors, ensuring an additional layer of assurance within the system.
Furthermore, regular self-assessment questionnaires for all supply chain stages and on-site onboarding audits for spinning mills conducted by independent audit firms will form part of this comprehensive standard.
AbTF managing director Tina Stridde said: “The AbTF Transparency Standard strengthens the position of Cotton made in Africa and of the Regenerative Cotton Standard as internationally sought-after and reliable standards whose sustainability requirements in cotton production have always been independently verified.
“Being able to prove where a product’s raw materials come from—and being able to trace them throughout the textile production process, back to the cotton field—is essential for companies and brands today.
“The Aid by Trade Foundation’s new transparency standard provides solutions to this challenge, which textile companies and brands have no choice but to face due to increased political and social pressure at the international level.”
In November last year, the AbTF renewed its partnership with Lectra’s TextileGenesis to advance the traceability of CmiA certified fibre.
The new standard will ensure transparency, safety, and reliability around the world and throughout the textile supply chain. Credit: Cotton made in Africa (CmiA).
