Joint effort to strengthen U.S. organic textile industry
Textile Exchange and the Organic Trade Association (OTA) have entered a joint effort to strengthen the North American organic textile industry’s public policy influence and public relations efforts. The two groups will work together on legislative advocacy, public outreach and consumer education initiatives
The agreement was signed in conjunction with the recent formation of the OTA’s Fiber Council, which was created to provide a cohesive voice across fibre categories within OTA and to grow the North American organic fibrr sector overall.
According to the Washington, D.C.-based association’s 2015 Organic Industry Survey, U.S. organic fibre sales were the fastest-growing non-food sector, reaching USD 1.1 billion in 2014, up 18 % from the previous year.
The leading organic fibre is cotton; in 2014, U.S. growers planted organic cotton on 18234 acres—the largest number of U.S. acres devoted to organic cotton since 1995. According to O’Donnell, Texas-based Textile Exchange’s 2014 Organic Market Report, global sales of organic cotton products reached an estimated USD 15.7 billion in 2014, up 10 % from 2013.
According to the press release, a major goal of the partnership is to boost outreach to North American consumers on the benefits of organic fibre and textiles, particularly the environmental and social benefits of growing and processing them.
Founded in 2002, Textile Exchange is a global non-profit that works with all sectors of the textile supply chain to find the best ways to minimize and reverse the negative impacts on water, soil, air and the human population created by this USD 1.7 trillion industry. The Organic Trade Association is the membership-based business association for organic agriculture and products in North America.