According to Chinese industry experts, the Chinese cotton industry is moving forward with plans to establish a fairer and more transparent international industry standard-setting platform to replace the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a Switzerland-based non-governmental organization, which has failed to facilitate the positive and sound development of the global cotton supply chain.
The BCI, which had been the leader in the global cotton industry, is losing membership and leadership. US brand Levi Strauss was standing down from the BCI’s leadership amid debate over its response to “alleged human rights abuses” in Xinjiang’s cotton industry. The weakened BCI has created an opportunity for the Chinese industry to establish a new coalition for quality evaluation, experts say.
China is now the world’s largest cotton consumer and the second-largest cotton producer, with total demand of about 8 million tons per year. China also supplies more than 80 percent of high-grade yarns and grey fabrics for the global textile supply chain. Given China’s large cotton consumption market and production scale, China’s cotton standards are likely to become new global cotton standards, one expert says.
