Sister company ofÇalıkDenim, ÇalıkCottonhas made significant strides in the production of organic, BCI (Better Cotton Initiative), and regenerative cotton by signing long-term agreements with local farmers in southeastern Turkey.
Venturing into cotton production, this Turkish premium denim manufacturer established Calik Cotton in 2015. By 2018, they set up a cotton ginning facility and warehouse near Şanlıurfa, Turkey. Since 2022, Çalık Denim has collaborated on an organic cotton project with Bestseller Group. In 2023, they launched their first regenerative cotton initiative with PVH Group.
Çalık Cotton's ginning facility and licensed warehouses are designed to ensure high-quality, traceable cotton production, and include a third-party laboratory for testing. To enhance transparency, the company is adding QR codes to the bales of cotton collected from the fields, enabling complete tracking of the fiber from the field to the fabric stage for its contracted customers, explains Mehmet SerdarOzcan, Sales Manager, Çalık Denim.
This tracking system offers detailed information on water, chemical, fertiliser, and electricity consumption for the cotton used, supporting sustainability goals. By adding pigments to the fiber before spinning, the entire cotton journey can be traced from the field to the store using a blockchain system. This method is more secure than traditional certification methods as these pigments are permanently embedded in the fiber and detectable at various production stages using scanners,emphasisesOzcan. Blockchain technology enables the transfer of all data from the field to the store, ensuring complete transparency and traceability, he adds.
Currently, Calik Cotton is collaborating with two major European brands on this innovative project. The company aims to set new standards in cotton production and sustainability, adds Ozcan. Spanning 90,000 sq m, its facility operates with high industry quality standards, processing 500 tons of seed cotton daily, 15,000 tons monthly, and 6,000 tons of fiber cotton monthly.
