With around 700 suppliers and producers across 25 countries, the Aid by Trade Foundation has reached a new record number of partners who can trace CmiA cotton from the product back to its origin.
This collaboration is built on a solid foundation: the Hard Identity Preserved (HIP) chain-of-custody model, which allows cotton to be consistently and reliably traced back from the finished textile to its origin.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
It applies in all cotton-producing countries in which AbTF is active, rather than just in a limited selection of regions. To date, around 33,000 tonnes of physically traceable CmiA cotton have been processed worldwide into some 190 million textile items. Around 700 spinning mills, as well as fabric and textile producers from a total of 25 countries, are currently operating in accordance with its requirements, and these numbers continue to grow.
“As a standards organisation, our mission is to ensure transparency throughout global supply chains,” says Tina Stridde, the managing director of the Aid by Trade Foundation, explaining, “The physical traceability of Cotton made in Africa cotton, one of the world’s leadings standards for verified cotton that respects human rights and biodiversity, is very important for textile companies and fashion brands. It ensures that social and environmental criteria are adhered to during cotton production and that their customers can make informed purchasing decisions. It also prevents greenwashing because audits create full transparency that the verified cotton is used.”
Partners such as Bestseller, the Otto Group, OVS, Primark, and the Rewe Group are already using the system today.
A long-term partner, the Rewe Group, sets a milestone in this respect. “We have reached our goal and were able to fully trace the Cotton made in Africa cotton used in our private label products back to its origin by the end of 2025,” says Torsten Stau, executive buying director, non-food / indirect spend, Rewe Group.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalData“The transparency system of the Aid by Trade Foundation enables us to clearly prove the origin and ensure that the cotton comes from African small-scale farmers who produce under recognised social and environmental standards. In this way, we are further increasing transparency along the entire supply chain, strengthen customer trust, and at the same time make a direct contribution to supporting the people in cultivation.”
For all partners who want to prove that their products contain CmiA cotton, the Transparency Standard will be mandatory starting in March 2026. Introduced in the spring of last year, it offers an extended security portfolio that encompasses digital transaction documents (DTDs) as well as risk-based desktop audits, which are carried out by independent and ISO-accredited audit companies.
