Fashion Revolution Week Day 3
The “Fairtrade Rohstoff-Siegel“ for cotton
The difference compared to the Fairtrade Cotton label is that in the case of the Fairtrade raw model, an agreed amount of fair cultivated and traded raw cotton is purchased and will be found in a product that is composed of conventional cotton, too. This is called quantity balancing, because fair cotton is combined with different, conventional cotton in the further processing steps, which means that the label shows a mixed product.
The label can serve companies as a starting point, as the goal is to steadily increase the proportion of fair cotton in products. The "Fairtrace" tracking tool makes documentary traceability possible. This means that a percentage of, for example, 15 % Fairtrade cotton in a company's products results in the same percentage of products being allowed to carry the label. For textiles to be given this label, the same requirements in terms of content are necessary as for the Fairtrade Cotton label. These include payment of the minimum price, the Fairtrade premium, environmentally friendly production, the prohibition of forced and child labor, and genetically modified seeds.