India’s organic cotton farming figures in row over data on global production

India’s organic cotton cultivation yet again figures in a global controversy. This time, it is over the Organic Cotton Market Report 2022, released by the Textile Exchange, a non-profit organisation that claims to drive a positive action on climate change.

In its 2022 report, the Textile Exchange has estimated global organic cotton harvest at 342,265 tonnes produced from 6,21,691 hectares of certified organic land in 2020-21. Organic cotton makes up 1.4 per cent of the total cotton production and its production increased by 37 per cent from 2019-20.

However, the Textile Exchange has said it has low confidence in the data from five countries - India, Kirghizstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uganda, who together accounted for 76 per cent of the certified organic total in 2020-21. Besides, it says it has a confidence of two out of three on the data from Turkey.

Reasons for scepticism

Confronting the Textile Exchange, Terry Townsend, a textiles industry consultant and former executive director of the International Cotton Advisory Council (ICAC), said on LinkedIn that among the reasons to be sceptical (about the report)  is that yields calculated from reported certified area and production are too high to be true.

In his posting, Townsend, who is seeking withdrawal of the report, said, “almost by definition, yields in organic agriculture are lower than yields achieved by conventional farmers, and the organic cotton yields reported for 2020-21 in and of themselves raise suspicion of fraud.”

One reason for the Textile Exchange eyeing data from India with suspicion is that the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) -India’s nodal agency for organic farming - has penalised at least four certifying agencies for irregularities committed in the certification process.

All norms violated

The agencies were found violating all norms with regard to organic cotton certification and, ironically, growers were unaware that they were part of an organic farming group. 

These growers did not follow any norms for organic farming and applied agrochemicals to their crop. The certifying agencies did not have an internal control system, which required an office in the place where the grower group grows the organic produce. 

One of the organisations penalised by APEDA did not have any record on the growers’ group registered for organic cultivation. Earlier this year, International Organic Accreditation Service suspended the accreditation of Control Union (CU) India from testing and sampling of Indian organic textile products on charges of irregularities committed in its certification process. 

Referring to India and the four other countries, Townsend said farmers, ginners and traders around the world are aware that it is possible to make fraudulent claims of organic cotton content without much risk. 

No penalisation

“Afterall, no one is ever put in jail or fined for making a false claim of organic certification. None of the five countries for which the Textile Exchange admits having low confidence in the 2020-21 data have a system of permanent bale identification numbers (PBI’s),” he said. 

Cotton bales, therefore, can be swapped in these countries and once bales arrive at a spinning mill, there is no way to trace back to the farm or gin of origin.  A company making a fraudulent claim of organic content risks losing certification and becoming a delisted-supplier, losing the certified organic price premium, possible customs detainment, and reputational damage but it does mean much, he said.

“The Textile Exchange did not say that its estimate of production is almost surely inflated, that there are many reasons to be highly sceptical of the numbers reported by the certification agencies…,” Townsend wrote.

The curious case of Turkey

The report said organic yields in eight countries, accounting for 3,07,214 tonnes of 2020-21 production (90 per cent of the world’s total), were equal to or higher than overall yields in each country, he said.

“At a minimum, the Textile Exchange has an obligation to explain how such high yields could be achieved, and nowhere did they even address the issue,” he said.

In the case of Turkey, which is the primary issue raised by the former ICAC official, while Textile Exchange said organic cotton production increased three-fold, the country’s Agriculture Ministry has said it dropped four-fold!

Townsend objected to the Textile Exchange with a disclaimer that it is “purely an aggregator” of data and it does not perform the work of certification. He said farmers, ginners and traders around the world are aware that it is possible to make fraudulent claims of organic cotton content without much risk.

Textile Exchange’s response

“Based on reasonable estimates of yields in each producing country, an estimate of world production of organic cotton of less than 2,00,000 tonnes in 2020-21 would not be surprising,” Townsend said.

The Textile Exchange could have published a range for estimated production and reported that the amount certified totaled 342,000 tonnes, but that authentic production was surely far less. “... authentic world production may not be growing at all,” the former ICAC official said.

Eco Textiles News reported that the Textile Exchange, responding to views expressed by Townsend, insisted its data were the best available and that they had been open about its reservations on some of the figures claimed.

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