International Organic Accreditation Service (IOAS) has suspended the accreditation of Control Union (CU) India from testing and sampling Indian organic textile products on charges of irregularities committed in its certification process.
IOAS said on its website that it suspended the accreditation of CU India for ISO/IEC 17065 (all scopes), GOTS (all scopes) and Textile Exchange (all scopes) and recommended suspension under COR for CAN/CGSB-32.312 (all categories) and grower group certification, following an unsuccessful appeal.
Originally established to help bring order to what could be a chaotic eco-labelled scene, IOAS helps build confidence amongst producers and trust between traders by providing oversight of certification or control bodies (CBs) working in different countries.
CU India has been invited to take corrective actions to enable the suspensions to be lifted. While the suspensions are in effect, they are not permitted to accept new applications, no certificates may be issued to new applications that are in progress, and no extensions of scope may be issued to existing operators.
IOAS further added that any operations, certification bodies and authorities that rely on this accreditation are asked to take note.
It has been said that the development comes on the heels of a Chennai-based service organisation, Sri Sri Sri Vivekananda Trust, writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the notification of the ‘Indian Standard for Organic Textiles’ to protect Indian organic cotton and the textiles industry.
Following this, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said the Centre plans to come out with a new certification system for organic textiles, particularly cotton and its derivatives. A committee has now been set up to look into setting up the new system.
Various irregularities have been alleged in organic cotton farming, with many farmers being unaware that they are part of a group that has been registered for organic cotton farming. In April last year, CU India wrote to its clients that it was temporarily withdrawing from India from certifying Indian cotton.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
