Oritain signs top U.S. cotton industry association
13 February 2018
Oritain Global Ltd. is announcing a major deal with U.S. cotton association SUPIMA - an association which represents more than 500 U.S. growers of superior U.S. grown American Pima cotton, the top one per cent of cotton grown in the world.
Press Release: 13 February 2018
This comes on the heels of last year’s landmark partnership with the J.G. Boswell Company (a member of SUPIMA®), and its Australian subsidiary Auscott.
SUPIMA® CEO Marc Lewkowitz says that the U.S. cotton association has been actively engaged in working with their partners and industry to expand verification processes. Oritain’s technology provides the American Pima cotton grower with a natural solution utilizing the cotton itself to authenticate it. Multiple solutions have arisen for verification, but this is one that is being made available to the entire American Pima cotton producer community and will encompass all growers from the four producing states of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
“American Pima cotton growers take great pride in their status of producing a rare and premium fibre often referred to as the ‘World’s Finest Cottons’ and SUPIMA® is committed to going the extra-mile to ensure that our brand and the fibre reputation is protected.
“We chose Oritain because of the distinct advantages its method provides. Oritain has the ability to detect illicit blending in the supply chain, and as an organisation we want to take positive and proactive steps to mitigate this risk.”
The partnership with Oritain fulfils SUPIMA’s decade long ambition to find a simple and natural way to use the fiber to verify provenance. “We were impressed that Oritain doesn’t need to apply any identifier or tracer during the manufacturing or processing phases, which makes it a very simple solution to deploy from an operational perspective. The Oritain methodology simply measures what is naturally inside the fibre," says Lewkowitz.
Grant Cochrane, Oritain CEO, says that the deal signed with SUPIMA® expands the company’s growth into the cotton industry and also opens opportunities with some of the world’s leading fashion brands who already work with SUPIMA®.
“We are pleased to be able to demonstrate our relevance throughout the supply chain – not just for primary producers,” he says. “We know that the fashion industry is highly-motivated in the sustainability space and we are ideally positioned to help them ensure the integrity of their products and meet their sustainability objectives,” says Cochrane.
Cochrane adds that the scientific solution Oritain offers will go a long way to address the traceability challenges that have been faced by the global cotton industry in recent years.
