Cotton - Organic, Fairtrade and Beyond
Click here for two videos from the organic cotton farmers in India.

Our organic cotton is sourced from the Chetna Organic Cotton Project in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Over 1,500 farming families are now involved in the project which is currently expanding into Tamil Nadu and Orissa, and is expected to grow to include 17,000 farmers by 2010, producing 20% of the organic cotton grown in India.

Fairtrade and organic certification ensures that the cotton farmers are paid approximately 60% above the market price of conventional cotton. An additional 15% premium is paid to the Chetna farmers to further social, economic and environmental development in their villages. In a world where cotton prices have suffered a 50% decline in the last decade, this is good news for the farmers involved. But what about the workers who manufacture the products?

As the April 2007 New Internationalist magazine pointed out, Fairtrade cotton certification regulates the conditions under which cotton is grown, not how it is sewn. So, a t-shirt made with organic cotton could have been sewn in a sweatshop.

Our organic cotton products are all manufactured in the Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills in Kolkata, India. Rajlakshmi is working with several major Fair Trade Organisations in Europe to integrate Fair Trade and ethical working practices throughout the whole production chain.

Rajlakshmi outsources spinning to "Pacific Cotspin". This factory is ILO compliant and ISO 9001:2000 (quality management) certified, and is working with Rajlakshmi to implement the provisions of the Clean Clothes Campaign. Rajlakshmi has two factories which produce the final products. The first one, "Green License" was set up in 2003 under the provisions of the Clean Clothes Campaign, and a new one at Junglepur was commissioned in April 2007. Both factories are exclusively producing organic cotton products, and are meeting all ILO requirements for their workforces.

There is more to be done, but we are proud to be associated with the Rajlakshmi/Chetna project, will strive to increase the range of their products, and will keep you informed of progress.