The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) and the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) signed a memorandum of association (MoU) for branding and traceability of Indian-grown Kasturi Cotton.
The MoU took place during the two-day Textile Conclave coinciding with the Kashi Tamil Samagam event at Varanasi (UP).
Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry; Rachna Shah, Secretary, Textiles; Lalit Gupta, Chairman, CCI were also present on this occasion.
Elaborating on the terms of the MoU, the Minister said that it will encourage the industry to work on the principle of self-regulation by owning complete responsibility of traceability, certification and branding of Indian cotton. Ministry of Textiles will contribute equal share of Rs.15 crore over a period of three cotton seasons starting from 2022-23 to 2024-25.
Traceability: Provide traceability of cotton from the farm level, generate origin information that the cotton is of Indian origin, provide complete traceability through blockchain-based software platform and integrate existing and available trace technologies like Geo Tagging and DNA-based standards to provide end-to-end tracing solutions.
Certification: Provide Registration and Transaction Certificates using QR Code based technology to validate ‘KASTURI Cotton India’ at each stage, to trace and validate the use of ‘KASTURI Cotton India’ in the supply chain to the brand Enable. The certification will be based on the test parameters protocol approved by the Apex Committee.
Branding: Promote ‘KASTURI Cotton India’ as a premium brand by enhancing international perception and valuation of Indian Cotton, position ‘KASTURI Cotton India’ as a reliable quality product both in the domestic and global markets thereby facilitating premium pricing and providing a unique brand identity to ‘KASTURI Cotton India’ by highlighting its specifications-based benefits and thereby enhancing export opportunities.
Taming it a historic moment, Sunil Patwari, Chairman, TEXPROCIL said that despite a very strong presence in the world market for cotton, India has been unable to brand its cotton varieties so far unlike USA – PIMA Cotton and Egypt – GIZA Cotton.
