As part of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) initiative launched in 2019 to improve transparency and traceability in the apparel and footwear industry, the Swiss company Haelixa is conducting a pilot project with the Costach Cooperative and the Peruvian textile company Creditex to ensure sustainable To give cotton producers in Peru more visibility in the value chain.
The initiative is carried out jointly with the International Trade Center (ITC) and is financially supported by the European Union. Haelixa is part of the expert group that develops policy recommendations and traceability standards and runs projects to set relevant benchmarks.
“Physical traceability is becoming a key element in raising awareness for the raw material producers and manufacturing companies that are at the beginning of the value chain, as consumers want to know who made their garments and under what circumstances they were produced. For brands, traceability is not only an important mechanism to underpin their sustainability claims, but also a great starting point for storytelling by giving a face and a voice to their supply chain partners,” comments Gediminas Mikuti, CTO and co-founder of Haelixa, in a statement.
Transparency from field to store shelf
“Tracing products from field to store shelf and beyond is a step in the right direction towards more responsible consumer choices and towards sustainable and circular business models in the textile industry,” adds UNECE project leader Maria Teresa Pisani.
In this context, with the support of the +Cotton project, implemented by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), a pilot project for marking and tracing the finest Pima cotton will be carried out for Creditex direct to of the ginning plant in Piura, Peru.
Haelixa’s DNA marker connects the actual lint cotton with the entry in a blockchain system provided by the UNECE. Haelixa’s technology ensures that the information about the origin of the product and the product’s path along the value chain is always securely anchored in the product itself.
The marked cotton is used in the production of exclusive pajama sets for the Californian luxury brand Cat’s Pajamas. DNA traceability will make it possible to verify the premium origin of Peruvian Pima cotton in the finished garment, made using sustainable processes by the farming families affiliated to the Costach cooperative.
Costach is the most important cooperative of cotton growers in Peru, made up of 5,200 families in the Piura region, who mainly produce extra-long fibers of Pima cotton. Since 2017, the +Cotton project has been supporting farmers with training on sustainable practices and offering technical assistance for better market access.
“Sustainability and traceability of products are very important today both for end users and for our global environment. We are very interested in this new way of tracing the fiber from the ginning to the garment, while improving all processes to reduce the contamination and damage caused by the industry and produce better and more durable garments,” explains Ricardo Dancuart, commercial manager of the yarn department at Creditex.