Fair Trade Cotton Seminar
Published on 30 December 2011
Stakeholders of Fair Trade Cotton Supply Chain Development project - FTF-I, CTM Altromercato Italy, Chetna Organic, IIRD and KRUSHI met at Yavatmal for a one-day concluding seminar on organic cotton cultivation. Seminar was attended by more than 40 participants. P.Sridharan Nair, Vice President, FTF-I, O.P.Yadav, Director-Programs, FTF-I, Vittorio Leproux, CTM Altro Mercato, from Chetna Organic Producers Company - Ashutosh, CEO, Mrinal, Quality Control Manager, from IIRD Joy Daniel, CEO of and Deepak, CEO of Krishi as well as Technical Officers, Farmer Cluster Presidents and Secretaries, farmers’ representatives, technical officers, cluster leaders also took part in the seminar.
The organic cotton cultivation, R&D work done and challenges experienced during current season (2011) were presented, discussed in detail. Later four group leaders of Chetna and IIRD presented the plans as well as targets for the next organic cotton season that would bring an additional 1500 acres under cultivation in 2012. Chetna Organic paid up to Rs 500/- extra for organic cotton this time against the prevailing market price of conventional cotton. The supply chain formation is progressing steadily and as per the plans. Assisi Garments, placing the first order for Chetna's organic cotton, which has proved to be of the most superior quality, was the remarkable achievement during the period.
Introduction of Continuous Sustainable Management System (CSMS) related to three main lines – organic production, Fair Trade quality and certification as well as SME management & cluster networking was also progressed during the year. This has been achieved in full at the back-end in Maharashtra and will be monitored further in the next Cotton Season in 2012. The quality auditor & consultant Allsandra Gallardi have assessed five SMEs at Tiruppur in detail during May 2011 and follow up assessment on his report on the CSR, Fair Trade, quality standards and cluster networking for compliance in the areas indicated by him is going to be done in January and February 2012. Regarding formation of a consortium for purchase of organic fabric from the SMEs and supply to FTF-I members to produce prototypes for test marketing in Italy during 2012, FTF-I board has approved formation of a Private Limited Company with individuals from member organizations as share holders.