OUR SERVICES: RAW MATERIAL SOURCING
Promoting agriculture that is better for people and planet
Procure cotton and other raw materials in the most responsible way.
Building a resilient, robust and successful supply chain means having suppliers that are also succeeding.
The crucial link in the chain are the farmers. To be successful they need to increase income, profitability and productivity so that they can continue to supply high quality raw materials, now and in the future.
CottonConnect’s specialist teams of agronomists know exactly how to produce cotton in the most sustainable and responsible way. With local knowledge, they work on the ground to build the skills, capacity and understanding of thousands of farmers that supply you with cotton, giving them the training and tools they know will help them boost their yield and profitability.
CottonConnect can help you improve your sourcing in the following ways:
Ensuring farmers follow best practice
To give retailers and brands reassurance, we have developed three rigorous REEL Codes of Conduct to ensure our agricultural training programmes follow best practice and create the right outcomes: REEL Cotton Code, REEL Regenerative Code and Reel Linen Code. You can find out more about REEL here.
These codes define specific criteria for sustainable raw material production to improve farm performance, reduce environmental impacts and improve cotton quality in the supply chain.
Investing in sustainable agriculture to deliver concrete results
We help farmers improve their livelihoods and reduce the impact of cotton production on the environment. We train cotton farmers to address their over dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides in order to preserve the biodiversity of their farms. Our programmes are guaranteed to boost profits, cut water use and reduce input costs. Our verified numbers speak for themselves:
Cotton Impact Results 2022-23*
Boosted profits by
47.0%
Increased yields by
18.5%
Cut water use by
21.6%
Reduced chemical fertiliser use by
14.4%
Reduced pesticide use by
17.1%
Reduced input costs by
15.0%
*These results relate to the REEL Cotton programme, specifically in the areas of sustainable land management and environmental stewardship. The results are achieved by supporting farmers to adopt the sustainable agricultural practices taught as per the REEL Cotton Code of Conduct.
Use REEL to promote sustainable practices
Our REEL Cotton Programme is a specially designed three- year agricultural training course that promotes sustainable cotton farming practices. The REEL Cotton Code is a code of conduct developed with, and independently verified by third party, FLOCERT.
In response to a growing desire from brands to enable farmers to foster mitigation and adaptation to climate change, and restore biodiversity and natural habitat, we developed a new REEL Regenerative Cotton Code.
Our organic training programme covers multiple aspects of agronomic interventions with a focus on good agricultural practices, the organisation of farmer collectives and biodiversity.
We support sustainable linen too
We have developed the REEL Linen Code, in partnership with Kingdom, one of the largest linen yarn manufacturers in the world. Like REEL Cotton, linen fibre produced according to the REEL Linen Code is traceable from farm to yarn.
The Code requires farmers and processors to adopt more sustainable practices when producing the flax fibres which are spun into linen yarn. We provide a three-year agricultural programme for farmers, giving them the knowledge and skills for sustainable linen farming practices. (REEL Linen Code of Conduct - Farming & Processing)
Find out how we can build robust and resilient material sourcing for your organisation.
Get in touch
Now you know what we do, why not find out how we might be able to support you. Get in touch now.