The effects of the global pandemic brought different measures to the agenda in many sectors with the increasing raw material crisis in 2021, disruptions in the supply chain, container crisis, increased freight charges, corruption in India, the world's largest organic cotton producer, and reactions to the cotton picking policy in China's Xinjiang region, European apparel. While the interest of the world's giant brands such as H&M, Inditeks, Lacoste intensified in Turkish cotton, the search for solutions by many associations such as the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers Association has also mobilized the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

It will enable 200 farmers to produce organic cotton on 20 thousand hectares of land in Aydın Söke:

Within the scope of the joint project of TGSD and the Ministry, TGSD President Ramazan Kaya said, “We started a study on the contracted organic cotton farming model together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The project we support is carried out by Aydın Provincial Directorate of Agriculture. We are transforming the 20 thousand hectares of cotton field planted in Aydın's Söke region into organic cotton field by taking strength from the exporting companies we work with. The Ministry of Agriculture also provides saplings and some supports. Working with nearly 200 farmers to turn the area into an organic farming area. US and EU customers who make serious purchases from Turkey give a purchase guarantee. We will transfer this 20 thousand hectares of planted area to organic, but there is a 3-year transition period here. Customers will also receive the intermediate product. They will also receive it as certified IC2 cotton from Control Union. In the fourth year, organic cotton production will be started. A yield of around 5 thousand tons is expected in 20 thousand hectares.

Kaya said, “Many brands we have already worked with have switched to traceable fiber practices along with organic farming and good cotton practices on the basis of sustainability. We should not only look at it organically, we also organize traceability here. In other words, we are creating a production chain that includes information about which seed, in which field, by which farmer, and in which yarn factory the product is produced”.

More than 90 percent of organic cotton produced in 19 countries in the world is produced in 5 countries. While around 240 thousand tons of organic cotton is produced annually in the world, Turkey ranks fourth with approximately 23 thousand tons of cotton production. In In India, non-organic cotton was put on the market with fake documents as if it was organic, and in China, cotton picking policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region led to criticism. For this reason, many famous brands such as Burberry, Adidas, Nike, New Balance and H&M announced that they would stop buying cotton grown in the Xinjiang region.