Textile Exchange

The term organic describes a method of farming without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides or fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation or genetic engineering, and are certified by an accredited independent organization. It is a system of farming that strives for a balance with nature, using methods and materials that are of low impact to the environment.

The US the standard is the USDA National Organic Program (NOP). The EU standard is the EEC 2092/2091. The Japanese standard is JAS. India and Australia also have organic standards.

Certification is done by independent, third party certifiers accredited to the standards being certified against.

* Submit application to accredited independent 3rd party certifier
* Develop Farm Plan for Ecosystem Management
* Develop an Internal Control System, includes record keeping
* Annual Inspections by certifier
* Transition period of 2-3 years depending on standard

The major differences are in the following categories: seeds, weed control, soil and water and harvest practice. For more information, check out our organic cotton pamphlet or Symbiosis booklet.

Currently India produces the most, followed by Turkey and Syria.

Through crop rotation, promotion of soil health, and through an absence of agriculture chemicals that effect the ability of wild life and insects around the farm to thrive.

Organic Exchange produces a Fiber Report annually, the first one was issued in 2006. The Organic Farm & Fiber Report is distributed at no charge to members at the $500 level and above, or is for sale at $400. The report details fiber production globally by region and country, gives estimates for the coming seasons production and lists farming projects.

Please see our publication Sowing the Seeds of Change.

Besides being an integral part of farming organically and required under organic standards to enhance the quality of the soil. Rotation crops provide food security and alternative sources of income for farming communities.

Organic is beneficial to the environment; beneficial to farmers, their families and their communities and gives added value for retailers.

Details on how to label your garment can be found in our Guide to Labeling Organic Textile Products. It is no charge to members at the $1,000 level and above, or $250 to non-members. A working group consisting of certification experts from around the world contributed to the development and review of our guide.

The legal requirements on labeling vary from country to country. In the United States, unless the products have been processed to the National Organic Program (NOP) standards (which were developed for food), the only allowable claim is “made with (x%) organic cotton.” In Europe and Japan, there are no laws governing the labeling of processed non-food products. In all cases, the language for organic claims will be laid out by the standards to which the products are certified. Further information can be found in our Guide to Labeling Organic Textile Products.

Legal labeling requirements apply in the country where products are being sold. For example, if a shirt is made in India and sold in the U.S., the label must comply with the laws of the U.S., set by the NOP, governing the use of the term organic. The product label must also comply with the marketing laws of the U.S., set by the Federal Trade Commission. Voluntary standards, however, are those set by private or non-governmental organizations. Examples include the OE 100, OE Blended and GOTS. There is no legal requirement to follow these standards, but they offer many advantages such as a clear protocol for supply chains to follow, assured product integrity, increased validity to marketing claims, and third party verfication.

The minimum certification for organic labeling is the farm certification, but be certain that it is valid for the country where the products are to be sold. However, note that you will also have to ensure that the organic fiber can be tracked from the certified farms through all steps of processing, and into your final products.

You must be able to track the organic cotton in your product back to the bales of cotton produced on a certified organic farm.

In Europe, North America and Japan there are no legal requirements to certify the processing of organic fibers; no government standards have been developed beyond the farm gate. However, there are many benefits to using a fully certified supply chain. Full certification will give you peace of mind, and allow you to market your products with confidence.

The organic fiber must be segregated, labeled and processed on a cleaned out or dedicated line that is physically isolated. The processor must have a system in place to track the organic fiber as it moves through production.

Yes, the Organic Exchange 100 Standard is being specifically developed to certify that products made with 100% organic fiber have been tracked through the production chain and segregated to prevent commingling with other fibers. The OE 100 Standard does not certify other claims dealing with processing, social or quality issues.

The OE Blended Standard covers products made with a blend of organic and conventional fiber.

The OE Blended Standard covers products made with less than 70% organic fiber. The remaining fiber can be synthetic or natural, organic or conventional.

The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is extremely robust; it covers the use and processing of organic fiber, as well as social, environmental and quality criteria. GOTS is a voluntary processing standard developed to work towards bringing global uniformity to sustainable textile processing.

In addition to assuring that your supply chain has taken all the right steps to track your organic cotton, as the OE standards accomplish, you may want to make additional claims about your products concerning processing standards, transportation, packaging, social or quality issues.

Yes, contact the agency that certified your products to obtain use of the logos.

Many companies have their organic cotton use certified to the spinning level, and that is a very good first step.  However, it still does not give complete assurance about the organic cotton content of the final products: once the yarn leaves the spinner, there needs to be verification that it actually ends up in the fabric, and then in the final garment.  Unfortunately there are a number of ways that this might not happen:

     1. Cheating or carelessness by the fabric mill: they may be able to produce transaction certificates showing that they received 1000 kg of organic yarn and produced 1000 kg of organic fabric, but you do not know whether the organic yarn was actually used in your fabric, or if it went into the fabric sent to a different customer.  Without proper controls, they could potentially show the same transaction certificates to support multiple shipments of 'organic' fabric to various customers - whether it is done deliberately or as a result of carelessness.   As part of the OE certification, the certifier will review the records (transaction certificates, shipping records) of all organic inputs and outputs, and will ensure that they meet the 'mass balance test'.

     2. Confusion or commingling of organic and conventional yarns: although the mill may have good intentions, if they do not have the proper systems in place to maintain the identity of the organic cotton yarns, then there is the risk that conventional yarns may be accidentally substituted.  A proper system of labeling, staff communication, and documentation is needed. Again, a certifier will do physical checks to see that these systems are in place.

These are the two main issues to be concerned about, and similar scenarios can apply to garment factories or other points where goods are handled or transferred.  Although there are a number of ways to improve the reliability of your products containing organic cotton, the most certain way is through certification of the entire supply chain to the OE 100 and/or OE Blended standards.  GOTS certification will achieve the same thing, but there will be added requirements around chemical use, water treatment, social issues and more.

Regarding costs, this is a difficult one, as the certification costs will vary greatly by factory.  In addition to the price structure of the certification body, the costs will be influenced by:

- location of the factory vs. the location of the certifier: the factory will have to pay for the travel costs of the certifier to do inspections

- the complexity of the factory operations: this will affect the number of days that an inspector must spend at the facility

- initial level of compliance by the factory: if a factory is well organized and following all of the right steps to ensure the integrity of their cotton, then only a single inspection should be needed.  However, if major non-conformities are noted, then the factory will have the cost of correcting them, as well as a second inspection.  

- transaction certificates: the factory must request a transaction certificate for each shipment of certified goods sent out, and there is a small fee that is paid to the certification body.  On larger shipments this fee is very minor, but it can add up if there are numerous small shipments

The pricing structure of the different certification bodies varies, and should be available on their website or by request.  It is generally composed of a number of elements:

- daily fee for inspector

- travel costs for inspector

- evaluation of inspection report and certification decision (done by the head office)

- any fees connected to the standards (for OE, the fee is $50 per certified facility per year)

 In most cases, the company that is being certified (eg: spinner, fabric mill etc.) will pay for the cost of certification.   They will contract directly with a certification body (likely choosing one that has a local office, and a strong reputation) and make all arrangements to become certified.  The advantage this way is that the supplier can offer their certified products to all of their customers, and as volume builds, spread out the certification costs.

In some cases a brand or retailer may offer to pay for the certification costs of one or more suppliers.  This might be done when only their products need to be certified, and the supplier has no incentive to become certified otherwise.   While this may be a good way to get started, it does not create the incentive for the supplier to bring in more customers for its organic goods.

There is a 3 year period under the NOP Standard and a 2 year period under the EEC 2092/2091 Standard for farmers transitioning their land to organic production from conventional production. Cotton in transition, transitional cotton or cotton in conversion, is cotton being grown on land in the transitional period according to the organic standard.

Currently labeling for transitional cotton is only allowed in the EU where it is called organic in-conversion and needs to be certified under the EU organic standard. Organic Exchange has a task force currently focused on transitional cotton. A member of the task force is lobbying the USDA, the US government agency that creates the rules for organics, to be able to label transitional cotton in the US.

In order to best grow the industry, we need to ensure and encourage enough farmers are moving from conventional to organic farming. Crop yields are typically lower and risks higher during the transition, so farmers are at financial risk, we need to support them so that they thrive and survive. Value will be added to the cotton and thus a better price for the farmer if a label can be used to identify that the cotton is transitioning to organic.

Farmers, the land and the cotton being grown in transition to organic must be under the supervision of an accredited certifying body. This means that adherence to organic standards starts immediately. So all organic standards, such as no chemicals on the land are being followed during this 3 year period.

Depending on the details of the USDA’s approval, we hope to offer messaging for hang tags and content labels as well as a transitional cotton logo.

Contact Organic Exchange for more information.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered. The technology is often called “modern biotechnology” or “gene technology”, sometimes also “recombinant DNA technology” or “genetic engineering”. It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non-related species.

There are many varieties of GM cotton, BT is the most well known. BT cotton is genetically engineered to resist insects with the addition of a deadly bacteria called bacillus thuringiensis. Over 83% of the conventional cotton grown in the US is GM.

No, none of the organic growing standards established by any government allow for GMO’s. In fact, the EEC has restricted the use of GMO’s in all farming in the EU.

• Flow of enhanced genetic material through cross pollination to other related crops and wild plants.
• Genetically engineered plants which are designed to kill pests may kill beneficial insects which would result in loss of biodiversity and the benefits these insects bring to the crop.
• Questionable validity of industry data concerning reduced pesticide and/or herbicide use with GM crops as promised.
• Genetic engineering to develop insect resistant crops may encourage the faster development of resistance to pest control products in insect populations, thereby leading to the use of more or stronger pesticides.
• Seed security as seeds are patented so that a farmer can not collect seeds from a gm crop to sow the following season. New seeds need to be purchased.

Yes, CERT ID is a global company active in providing third-party certification programs to growers, agricultural processors, food ingredient producers, food and feed manufacturers, animal producers and food retailers. CERT ID offers traceability solutions that deliver certainty, transparency and safety.

Visit the Textile Exchange Member Directory for up-to-date profiles of Textile Exchange members.

Organic Exchange produces a Fiber Report annually, the first one was issued in 2006. The Organic Farm & Fiber Report is distributed at no charge to members at the $500 level and above, or is for sale at $400. The report details fiber production globally by region and country, gives estimates for the coming seasons production and lists farming projects.