Managing a global supply chain has never been easy but in the last few years it’s gotten more complicated than most people would have ever imagined.
Today sourcing executives need to balance creativity with sustainability, ‘just in time’ with ‘just in case’, while managing costs and having more transparency in their supply chains.
Technology is helping solve some of the challenges, but the real support comes from having highly experienced, reliable partners who brands and retailers can work with to create customized solutions that evolve along with market demands.
Suppliers from many countries are vying for business from brands, each offering their own competitive advantages – in some cases price, other times speed and agility or greater creativity.
But is there a place that offers reliability, creativity and sustainable products?
Innovation Backed By Quality and Reliability
It turns out that Thailand is increasingly the answer to brands’ and retailers’ quest for better quality products backed by environmentally best practices and supported by highly skilled middle management, as well as well trained workers.
“We operate two innovation centers in Thailand called NIC and NIC Lab. They are focused on fabric development as well as how we create garments. We’re focusing a lot on 3D innovation, where we are on a platform that customers are using,” Chotik Chavapokin, President of the garment business unit at Nan Yang Textile Group.
The nation has become a valued resource for high quality cotton yarn, a product that is in big demand right now.
“Normally OE (open end) yarns use shorter fiber lengths, however we use longer fibers to raise the quality,” said Apinun Kongkiatkrai. His company, Kongkiat Textile produces 200 tons of yarn per month and focuses on making high quality top dyed yarns.
Thai mills have a long history of investing in high quality raw materials such as U.S. cotton.
“U.S. cotton is more expensive, however there is very little waste and when we put it into the spinning process this means that we actually save costs and can operate more efficiently,” said Suphakon Pinyawat at The Phiphatanakit Textile.
U.S. cotton is known for its very low contamination, which means that the spinning, weaving and dyeing process will be nearly flawless.
Sustainability Supported By Greater Transparency
Sustainability continues to evolve from simply using natural fibers or recycling. Today manufacturers through to retailers must be able to substantiate their environmental claims – something that can be quite complex.
Increasingly, government legislation and internal sustainability targets are requiring brands and retailers to have more transparent supply chains.
The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol® (the Trust Protocol) was launched to support greater sustainability and transparency throughout the supply chain.
“U.S. cotton is the only cotton that gives very good traceability. We can trace it back to where it is grown and where each bale is from. There is tons of information about each bale,” said Jamie Sirikietsoong at Thai Industries Development.
“Some of our customers are now requesting more information about the raw materials that we are using. As a Trust Protocol member we can tell them which ginner, which cotton field and so forth that the cotton used in the yarn came from, said Niphan Wongphanlert, Managing Director at Kangwal Textile Co. Ltd.
“We expect that the Trust Protocol will help us to meet the growing criteria for sustainability and transparency,” added Mr. Takahashi, President, Thai Kurabo Co. Ltd.
Email. kpangsapa@cotton.org | Tel. +66-2-392-5344
Certified Sustainable
The Trust Protocol® is aligned with existing sustainability programs including the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. It brings quantifiable and verifiable goals and measurement to sustainable cotton production, and drives continuous improvement in six key sustainability metrics – land use, soil carbon, water management, soil loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy efficiency. The Trust Protocol is designed from the ground up to address the unique regulatory and larger farm growing environment in the United States.
How the Trust Protocol Works
The Protocol Consumption Management Solution (PCMS) starts at the gin when the participating producer’s cotton is ginned and each unique Permanent Bale Identification number (PBI) is attached. At this point we know the exact gin weight and can create an exact amount of Protocol Cotton Consumption Units, where one Protocol Cotton Consumption Unit is created for each kilogram of Protocol Verified Cotton. This important step provides absolute authentication of U.S. cotton origin, verifying against the USDA database.
Supply Chain Transparency
The PCMS harnesses blockchain technology through a powerful combination of the Trust Protocol platform and TextileGenesis™ system to deliver full supply chain transparency by recording and verifying the movement of U.S. cotton along the entire supply chain. This creates article-specific transparency for finished products that was not previously accessible to brands and retailers.
Trusted Third Party Certification
The Trust Protocol incorporates a comprehensive program of verification against Trust Protocol benchmarks, in the form of both second-party and independent third-party audits of grower performance through Control Union Certifications—the latter through allocated on-site visits.
Control Union Certifications has certified over 150 industry standards programs worldwide, including working as a key partner in the early development and piloting phases of Impact Claim Verification Protocol.
Learn More https://trustuscotton.org
The COTTON USA Advantage
- Family growers who are committed to working their fields sustainably and leaving them better for future generations.
- A long history of innovative harvesting and ginning technologies resulting in higher-quality cotton.
- One of the highest rates of adoption in the world for Precision Agriculture, which minimizes water and pesticide usage.
- U.S. farmers operate under voluminous, stringent, and enforceable regulations.
- A commitment to transparent partnership that is unmatched anywhere.
- One of the most comprehensive systems for monitoring and measuring all the key metrics involved in sustainability.
U.S. Cotton Facts
- 2/3 of U.S. cotton land uses only rain water
- U.S. cotton water use efficiency has improved by 79% over the past 35 years
- Cotton is carbon footprint neutral, meaning the plants remove more greenhouse gasses than production produces.
Sustainability Goals
The U.S. cotton industry is building upon the strong environmental gains already achieved over the past 35 years. The aim is to help members meet their current needs while making the world a better place for future generations.
Specific goals include:
- Reducing by 13 percent the amount of land needed to produce a pound of cotton fiber
- Reducing soil loss by 50 percent, in balance with new soil formation
- Increasing water use efficiency (more fiber per gallon) by 18 percent
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 39 percent
- Increasing soil carbon in fields by 30 percent
- Reducing energy to produce seed cotton and ginned lint by 15 percent
Learn More www.cotton.org
