Gen10 recently attended the ICA International Trade Event, The Future of Cotton, held in Dubai. During the event we particularly noticed interest in collaborative industry-wide initiatives, and the ongoing trend towards greater traceability and supply chain transparency.
Highlights include how the cotton supply chain is coming together to demonstrate the benefits of plant vs plastic fibres in terms of sustainability, social impact, and human health. And a collaborative project fostering the next generation of talent also received well-deserved recognition.
The future of cotton trading
Networking discussions showed that cotton merchants are more aware than ever how technology can help them respond to challenges and improve daily operations. Companies generally understand that a good Commodity Management System can help them improve efficiency, modernise their risk and logistics systems, and create greater profitability.
Traceability in these Commodity Management Systems is recognised as essential, although many organisations are not fully aware of just how powerful modern systems can be in this regard. Many cotton merchants are using systems without full bale-level traceability and aren’t aware that Gen10’s CommOS, as an example, can seamlessly trace an individual bale, manage its quality data and sustainability certificates, and provide environmental impact accounting too.
Liverpool Commodity Trading Hub
We were also delighted to see such a warm response to Mat Halsall’s presentation on the Commodity Trading Hub he established in association with Liverpool John Moores University.
The programme, now in its third year, relies on industry collaboration, with seminars, training, and placements from Gen10 and other leading firms as part of the course. The Hub is proving to be a great success and attracting new talent into the industry, securing 5 commodities graduate roles for students in year one and 13 in year two.
Gen10 have been very active in our support of the programme, recruiting 3 graduates, and this year providing our CommOS platform to design a trading game for the students. We encourage our industry partners to get involved – to improve awareness of careers within commodities, and to secure your own talent pipeline.
The future of cotton keynote
The opening keynote from Joe Nicosia of Louis Dreyfus Company cut to the heart of the issues facing cotton right now, particularly the continuing loss of market share to polyester. He argued that we as an industry need to face this threat head on, with opportunities arising from collaboration with the media, government organisations and even health projects, as the dangers of microplastics are becoming increasingly well-known.
Make the Label Count
Discussions around draft EU legislation on sustainability labelling in textiles explored how the cotton community can highlight issues with the EU Product Environmental Footprint (PEF).
The Make the Label Count campaign has been set up to ensure this legislation is fair and credible. The campaign emphasises 6 key environmental impacts that the legislation in its current form doesn’t fully account for, or omits:
- The full impact of fossil fuels
- Production practices
- Microplastic pollution
- Renewability and biodegradability
- Duration of service life
- Social impacts
Whilst the legislation in its current form represents a threat to the reputation of cotton as a sustainable material, bringing the industry together to meet a unified sustainability and promotional goal can be a positive for cotton in the longer term. And whatever form the eventual legislation takes, it will only provide a further incentive for cotton merchants, and the entire supply chain, to improve their sustainability, traceability, and the data management that makes these goals possible.
If you would like to explore how you can improve your own supply chain traceability, alongside faster operations and better trading decisions, get in touch with us today.
