The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) will link fabric mills to the Better Cotton Tracer. This is an online traceability platform used by ginners, spinners and retailers. It records purchases and sales of Better Cotton. This means retailers and brands belonging to Better Cotton Initiative will now be able to trace their cotton purchases more accurately and transparently. 

Initially this program will only be run as a pilot. It will give fabric mills access to the Better Cotton Tracer for one year and allow members of BCI to track the use of Better Cotton more easily throughout the supply chain. For the first time, some retailers will have full transparency from the raw materials to the end product. 

BCI aims to recruit 250 fabric mills as users in 2015, before assessing the success of the fabric mill pilot category. BCI hopes that by extending the use of the Better Cotton Tracer across different actors, it can contribute to more trusting relationships between these actors and a more transparent cotton sector as a whole. 

The Better Cotton Tracer brings BCI closer to the possibility of having full physical traceability as an option for retail and brand members in 2016. BCI exists to make global cotton production better for people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future. 

bettercotton.org/