A Dunedin forensics company is partnering up with major American cotton producers as brands try to avoid the taint of the slave trade.
Testing would be able to pinpoint the origins of the cotton, Oritain chief executive Grant Cochrane said. Photo: 123RF
Oritain Global has signed a deal to prove the origin of SUPIMA cotton which represents more than 500 pima cotton growers across Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
The company already does testing for the likes of Silver Fern Farms, Sinlait and the honey industry.
Oritain chief executive Grant Cochrane said it would be the first time their forensic testing had been applied commercially to the cotton industry.
"Our deal with them is that we're scientifically proving the origin of their product to help protect their brand.
"There's a lot of concern in the fashion industry and fibre industry about where products are coming from, and a lot of this is being driven out of slave labour issue from countries like Uzbekistan."
There was a possibility to apply the testing throughout the supply chain and they were in discussions with a number of other possible clients including fashion labels, he said.
"If they've contracted someone to make something out of superior cotton they want to know that's what they're getting.
"One thing that's probably not that focused on in New Zealand but has a big impact overseas is the effects of the Modern Slavery Act. So any company exporting into the UK has now got to ensure their supply chains aren't tainted by slavery.
Mr Cochrane said their testing would be able to pinpoint the origins of the cotton, and ensure they weren't from high risk areas.
"Uzbekistan where they have state sponsored slave labour, there's a lot of that product in the market and people have vowed that it's not in their supply chain, so we're helping them audit the supply chain to make sure it doesn't get in."
Over the last six months Oritain had been building up a massive database of cotton samples from around the world, he said.
"So we've got teams through Egypt, India, China, America, wherever cotton's grown, building up this database. So it's a very expensive thing to set up but once the profiles are created it's very unobtrusive."