SYDNEY – Authenticity, traceability and environmental friendliness will be the underlying themes of this summer’s Australian cotton industry conference.

Organisers of the bi-annual event, which will be held from 10 to 12 August on the Gold Coast, are keen to display the major environmental and social inroads that Cotton Australia has been making over the last 10 years through its ‘Best Management Practice’ (BMP) programme.

“On Farm pesticide use-age has fallen by 85% since the mid 1990’s, and independent studies suggest our water footprint is now less than 52% of the world average,” said Cotton Australia CEO Adam Kay, adding that the BMP program had set out guidelines for retaining healthy soils, using less water, creating safe workplaces and protecting native vegetation.

“Additionally, desktop studies undertaken in 2009 for the UK Carbon Trust showed Australian cotton production had the lowest carbon footprint in terms of ‘on farm emissions’ of any of the major producers in the world.”

BMP farms have also been audited to ensure compliance, and a certification process has been established to ensure the authenticity of Australian BMP cotton shipments. “The Australian industry has been running yarn, fabric and garment trials with some of our ultra high quality seed varieties. When combined with BMP, this produces a highly marketable, completely authentic product,” added Kay.

Elsewhere, Japanese retailer Izumiya has embraced the concept of 100% BMP cotton in their Good-i brand, and work is also currently underway to combine the BMP message with high quality traits of new Australian seed varieties in a high quality eco-branded product.

Registrations are now open at the conference website:
www.australiancottonconference.com.au