certified
cotton
Reinhart offers certified cotton with confidence and provides business at ease. Our customers can expect cotton from trusted sources, thus mitigating potential risks in their supply chain.
Reinhart started sourcing and marketing certified cotton over twenty years ago. Today, the company is one of the world’s largest merchants of organic cotton and a significant pioneer and player in the global sustainable cotton market.
In 2012, Reinhart began partnering with Cotton made in Africa (CmiA), an internationally recognized standard and certification label for sustainable African cotton, and the Aid by Trade Foundation. In the same year, the company joined the Textile Exchange, a nonprofit that supports textile companies seeking greater sustainability. In 2013, Reinhart joined Better Cotton (BC) that was initially founded by large retailers and non-governmental organizations. In 2018, Reinhart co-founded the African Cotton Foundation (ACF) to support improving the livelihood-conditions of smallholder cotton farmers.
Lately, Reinhart joined the US Cotton Trust Protocol (USCTP), Textile Exchange’s Organic Content Standard (OCS) and regenagri. This allows to broaden the spectrum of certified cotton according to upcoming market demand, including cotton grown under regenerative agriculture.
Reinhart is one of the top cotton merchants by sourcing volume according to BC and committed itself to procure close to fifty percent of cotton from certified sources until 2025. Cotton is sourced through its main BC sourcing regions in Brazil (ABR), Australia (myBMP), USA and East-/West Africa (BC/CmiA), as well as organic (GOTS/OCS) certified cotton from various regions, with a focus on Tanzania. We estimate today’s global supply of certified cotton at about 20% of total cotton production.
The cotton market offers a range of technological solutions that ensure to determine the origin of cotton and its traceability to farm level. Reinhart is committed to stay on top of the latest developments, seeks to exchange with the supply chain to learn from each other and engage with a range of standards and labels, physical and digital traceability solutions. We know our supply chain down to the farm and develop jointly with our customers a tailored sourcing strategy that meets their needs for certified cotton.
Reinhart supports shaping the future of cotton traceability for the BC market with physical segregation to the farm. We also offer customers organic cotton that is marked with artificial DNA for physical traceability on the product. But we don’t stop here and engage with our supply chain through projects that support their digitalization, the capacity builiding on regenerative practices and improvement of soil health.
Interested to read more?
Find below our case studies of certified cotton and strengthening the supply chain:
«Bestseller debuts holistically sustainable African cotton»
BESTSELLER brands NAME IT and SELECTED are the first ever to include Cotton made in Africa (CmiA)-Organic in their collections – complete with a fully transparent supply chain from fields to final products.
Read the full retailer story here.
«Forensic traceability of organic cotton»
Haelixa visited Alliance Ginneries Ltd with support of Reinhart to install an automated cotton marking system. The mission was to mark and trace post-harvest cotton fibers up to finished garments, to create visibility and transparency across the supply chain of cotton grown in the Simiyu region in Tanzania.
Read the full story on forensic traceability here.
«Cotton4Impact: Digitalisation in the cotton value chain»
In November 2021, Reinhart in partnership with Alliance Ginneries Ltd and Ivoire Coton began a three-year project. With financial support by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH the consortium strengthens the communication between producers and ginners, and also digitalizes the collection of field-level data for subsequent reporting.
Read the full story on supply chain digitalization here.
«Benin Organic Cotton Project»
In November 2021, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) UK, in partnership with OPEPAB, Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF) and Reinhart, began a three-year project. With financial support by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH the consortium supports smallholder cotton farmers in Benin to convert to organic farming.
Read the full story on organic cotton in Benin here.
Learn more about the standards and labels that we offer by clicking on the logo.
