Supima has entered into an agreement with Oritain Global— an international forensic science firm — to provide a testing platform to verify the origin of Supima cotton. Oritain Global, will use their scientific technology to measure the naturally occurring elements that exist within the cotton fiber — based on the geographical production area the cotton is grown in. The project will cover the entire American Pima cotton growing region and create a unique ‘fingerprint’ for Supima® cotton.
Grant Cochrane, Oritain’s CEO says, “The unique fingerprint analysis identifies different levels of chemical attributes that are found in the product itself and enables the cotton to be verified against its claimed origin. This platform offers a solution to address the traceability challenges that have been faced by the global cotton industry in recent years.” Manufacturers, brand owners and retailers are increasingly focused on ensuring there is transparency within their supply chains. A huge part of this is knowing – and trusting – where their product comes from.
This is of particular importance as brands make claim associated with provenance and want to be reassured their product – in this case, Supima® cotton – isn’t being contaminated by inferior products coming from undesirable sources, he added. Supima® CEO Marc Lewkowitz says the partnership fulfils Supima’s decade long objective to find a simple and natural way to use the fiber to verify provenance. The Oritain methodology simply measures what is naturally inside the fiber.
