Chinese cotton industry is moving ahead with plans to form
a fairer and more transparent international industry standard-setting platform
to replace the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).
BCI, a Switzerland-based nongovernmental organization, has
failed to facilitate the positive and sound development of the global cotton
supply chain, according to Chinese industry experts.
BCI, which had been the leader
in the global cotton industry, has been under heavy fire both in China and
abroad for its “force labor” claims against cotton from Northwest
China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and is losing membership and
leadership in the global industry.
US brand Levi Strauss was
standing down from the BCI’s leadership amid debate over the group’s response
to “alleged human rights abuses” in Xinjiang’s cotton industry.
Several large international fashion brands including FILA and MUJI, expressed
their strong support for Xinjiang cotton in defiance of BCI’s claim.
Wang Wenkui, an executive at
the China Cotton Industry Alliance (CCIA), an organization under the Institute
of Cotton Research of Chinese Academy of Agricultural
Sciences, told that the
domestic industry has already been doing the ground work for a new coalition
and that some of CCIA’s experts have also been invited to formulate Chinese cotton
standards.
China is now the world’s
largest cotton consumer and the second-largest cotton producer as per data.
Supported by world-leading
technologies and management, China also supplies more than 80 percent of
high-grade yarns and grey fabrics for the global textile supply chain.
Source: Global Times
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