The 36th International Cotton Conference will look at methods of traceability and transparency in supply chains, as well as the possibilities for assessing cotton quality.
The context: The focus on transparency in supply chains has gained significance in light of the following:
- The European Union (EU) is holding textile companies accountable with its planned supply chain law. This requires a rethink in supply chain management.
- Additional challenges are arising from fast fashion, shorter cycle times in the textile and clothing industry, and demands for transparency and greater sustainability.
- Questions about the cotton quality required for a product also play an important role in this.
The event: The Bremen Cotton Exchange and the Fibre Institute Bremen eV are organising the 36th International Cotton Conference Bremen on 29 and 30 September. The motto of the event this time is 'Cotton Decoded'.
SOME OF THE MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS:
- Digital Ecosystems – The future possibilities: Gesine Köppe, Research Associate at the Institute for Textile Technology at RWTH Aachen University, will dwell on the model of a completely digitally networked ecosystem. It offers complete transparency with the possibility of traceability throughout the entire textile production and supply chain, from the cotton field to the textile and clothing retail trade. The solution lies in the use of ‘distributed ledger technology’ with the possibility of targeted documentation of selected transactions, which is also known in a similar form from blockchains. Every participant in the supply chain enters information relevant to the entire network into a decentralised digital ‘main ledger’, just like in bookkeeping.
- Cotton Uzbekistan: Traceability from field to mill: Rinat Gulyaev, Director at the Cotton Science-Innovation Center, Tashkent in Uzbekistan, will present a project aimed at identifying and labelling cotton and cotton products using digital technology. This is intended to create traceability for the participants in the supply chain from the cotton farm to the textile factory. It uses modern international standards and proven procedures. Special emphasis is placed on the interaction of digital technology with other digital platforms in the context of the digital transformation of the Uzbek economy.
- Textile Tracker: What cotton is my t-shirt made of? Secured proofs of origin are of essential importance in the textile chain. Karin Ratovo, Research Associate at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Mönchengladbach, and Markus Bonner of Agroisolab GmbH, Jülich, will present the test results of the 'Textile Tracker project. Agroisolab is one of the leading European laboratories in the field of isotope analysis. As part of the research work on the project, they examined whether the chemical signatures of cotton fibres are preserved in the usual textile processing steps. If the validation is successful, it would be possible to set up a georeferenced origin database for cotton and textiles.
- Effectiveness of locally networked value chains: Miriam Paris, Bayer Crop Science, US, will present a special ‘Field to Closet’ project in which cotton grown in Georgia was used in medical products. The special feature: the workwear fabrics are equipped with PROTX2 AV protection from the US company Intelligent Fabric Technologies NA. This is an antimicrobial technology that inhibits the growth of bacteria, a subject that is of great importance for the medical sector.
Results of cotton testing: Axel Drieling, Senior Manager Cotton and Member of the Board at the Fibre Institute, and the new Head of the CSITC Task Force and Chief Consultant for the Australian company Textile Technical Services, Geelong, Marinus van der Sluijs, will present the progress made in testing over the past 15 years.
- Since 2007, the Fibre Institute Bremen has been organising round tests for the standardisation of instrument tests for cotton as part of the Committee on Standardised Instrument Testing of Cotton (CSITC), in cooperation with the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
- The tests are aimed at verifying and harmonising high-volume instruments (HVI). The results of cotton tests carried out using HVI technology are in demand, for example, in the cotton trade or at spinning mills. Therefore, the testing of a certain cotton quality in certified laboratories should show approximately the same results internationally.
