Textile Exchange

By Silvere Tovignan - Regional Director for Africa, Textile Exchange  

Cotton plays an important role in the economy of African countries that have adopted it as an export crop.  From West to East and South Africa, the cotton production system is dominated by thousands of small scale farmers using mostly family labor. The reputation of African cotton is built on the fact that it is handpicked which is a presumption of cleanness as opposed to machine harvesting that mixes cotton with trash from leaves and stems. This presumption can sometimes be wrong. Spinners and some cotton merchants complain about contamination of African cotton... So where do the contaminants in cotton come from?  [Read More to Find out]