After decades of focusing on price and then speed, suddenly more traditional criteria such as stability, reliability and quality have become more important.
Thai Kurabo is now leveraging its solid, vertically integrated operations that includes spinning, weaving and finishing to provide their customers with a source of raw materials that they can count on.
“Because we have both spinning and weaving facilities, both can cooperate on developments and we can deliver orders more quickly ,” said Mr. Takahashi, President, Thai Kurabo Co. Ltd.
“We can do many very special yarns that customers request such as stretch yarns that have spandex or other filaments in the core.”
Established in 1968, Thai Kurabo has continued to invest in making its business stronger by adding services such as testing capabilities to measure yarn strength, shrinkage and stretch.
“Because we have both spinning and weaving facilities, both can cooperate on developments and we can deliver orders more quickly. ”
The company, one of Thailand’s top 10 yarn spinners, has 60 thousand spindles and produces 10,000 tons of yarn per year. In addition, they produce 1.2 million yards of fabric per month.
Supporting Buyers in Being Sustainable and Transparent
While buyers are keen to see new developments, they first need to meet increasingly stringent criteria for sustainability and transparency.
“Nowadays buyers have started asking a lot more questions about where our materials come from. It is very difficult for us because they want to know very deep details. However I think that this will become a standard practice in the future,” said Mr. Takahashi.
“Customers are asking for more sustainability. They want the real products.
“We expect that the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol® will help us to meet this criteria for sustainability and transparency,” said Mr. Kongpakpaisarn.
Quality Counts – for Manufacturers and Brands
Consumers are a lot more demanding these days and one thing they are looking for is better quality.
Thai Kurabo has relied on U.S. cotton to help them produce yarn and fabrics that meet even the very high standards of the Japanese market.
“U.S. cotton is very stable. It has the kind of quality that we can rely on, especially very low contamination.
“That is very important for us because we are selling to a very high end market, almost a niche market, so the quality must be excellent,” said Mr. Kongpakpaisarn. Most of Thai Kurabo’s yarns are 100% cotton, with about 10-15 percent cotton/polyester blends.
New Product Development
Sustainability is at the forefront of Thai Kurabo’s newest development. The company is working on a yarn that uses recycled cotton.
“We’re taking the fabric waste from garment production and we’re breaking it down and then using the cotton for spinning.
“Some of this waste fabric is from manufacturers in Thailand, but we’re also importing it from garment factories in Cambodia and Vietnam,” said Mr. Kongpakpaisarn.
While most yarn might have only 10-20 percent recycled cotton, Thai Kurabo is aiming to produce a yarn that has 50 percent recycled cotton.
In June the company is taking its first step in implementing solar energy. The goal is to boost sustainability, but also to help reduce the rising cost of energy.
Despite all of the challenges facing the textile industry these days, Thai Kurabo is optimistic.
“Looking ahead, we are looking to grow our business, but in the next six months we expect it to remain stable,” said Mr. Kongpakpaisarn.
Email. boonthong_k@kurabo.co.th | Tel. +66 2 256 6841
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
