On behalf of the Organic Exchange Farm Team, we would like to invite you to take a look at our three latest reports.
Organic Exchange's (OE) Organic Cotton Market Report 2009 provides:
· An overview of the global organic cotton market with additional data for 2009
· An in-depth look at the organic cotton programs of leading companies, products available in the market, and key developments in standard setting, labeling, company, and industry approaches to traceability and company integration of social, environmental, and economic standards implementation
· Possible market scenarios for 2010 and 2011
· Recommendations for action in the coming years.
The report provides examples of almost two dozen brands and retailers that launched or expanded their organic fiber programs and/or leading innovative work around farm development partnerships in 2009.
A Snapshot of Crop Diversification in Organic Cotton
OE has spent two years now exploring the role farm system crops (rotation crops, trap crops, intercrops etc) play on organic cotton farms. This report provides a closer look at the benefits crop diversification gives the organic cotton farmer - environmentally, socially and economically. It gives the reader insight into the uses system crops have in terms of soil fertility, pest management, food security, and existing local, regional and global markets. We also take a look at future and emerging market opportunities.
Organic Exchange's Assessing Sustainability - Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) program enables organic cotton farmers understand, reflect and act on key issues for 'sustainable development'. To this end, the program has focussed on farmer self-assessment. However, the resulting 'scorecard' also helps farmers communicate what the main issues are for the long term environmental, social and economic development of organic cotton growing, and to hold conversations about these issues with brands and other interested stakeholders. A growing number of producer groups in Africa, Latin America and India are using 'self-assessment' and implementing their own improvement programmes. This report offers a 'bird's eye view' of the scorecard 'results' and explores the collective environmental, social and economic perceptions made by organic cotton farmers in the three regions.