Some time ago, the Swiss Better Cotton Development Association (BCI) used rumors of so-called “forced labor” as an excuse to claim to “boycott Xinjiang cotton” and guided H&M, Nike, Adidas and other clothing companies to After the brand abandoned Xinjiang cotton, BCI’s official website quietly removed the statement “Boycott Xinjiang Cotton” from the shelves on April 15. Although this series of actions is confusing, it made the Chinese people aware of the monopoly of Western countries on cotton standards in international business competition. As a major cotton producer in the world, we can’t help but ask: Why can’t our country develop its own “cotton standards”?
Cotton companies call on my country to build its own standards
Over the past century, cotton and cotton textiles have been the world’s largest traded goods, and even played a crucial role in the rise of the United Kingdom and the United States. As early as the 1980s, the United States was the world’s largest cotton producer. Not only did it produce large amounts of cotton, it also controlled the pricing power of global cotton. Among them, the New York Futures Exchange (now renamed Intercontinental Exchange, or ICE) played a key role. Key role.
In 1870, the New York Cotton Exchange was established, and cotton futures trading was launched in the same year. Over the past 130 years, although 14 other commodity exchanges were born around the world and cotton futures trading was carried out, But in the end, only the New York Futures Exchange “survived”, and this is also an important reason why the United States can control global cotton pricing power.
But in recent years, the United States seems to have vaguely felt the challenge. On June 1, 2004, Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange listed cotton futures varieties. It has been in operation for 17 years and its influence in the global cotton market is gradually increasing. In April 2016, cotton futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange achieved an astonishing single-day trading volume of 41 million bales, while the trading volume of U.S. cotton on the same day was only 3.3 million bales. It can be said that the daily trading volume of Chinese cotton has undoubtedly “crushed” the United States.
Today, Chinese cotton is constantly entering the world market, and many American media have also recognized this fact: It is really difficult not to use Xinjiang cotton. The American Consumer News and Business Channel analyzed “Why boycotting Xinjiang cotton is easier said than done” in a report on April 16. The reason is that China’s cotton production ranks second in the world, and at the same time, China also sells goods to Thailand, Cotton is exported to 14 countries including Vietnam, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and yarn is exported to 190 countries.
The New York Times also pointed out in the report that the global textile industry supply chain is very long, and many steps in the middle may be carried out in different countries or regions such as China. Even if BCI member brands are not related to China Even if factories cooperate, there is no guarantee that their partners will not purchase Xinjiang cotton. Therefore, it is actually difficult for the global market to completely abandon Xinjiang cotton.
The importance of Xinjiang cotton is self-evident, and for domestic cotton spinning companies, they have realized that it is more important to establish their own standards as soon as possible. As one of the sustainable cotton standard initiative organizations, BCI connects all links of the upstream and downstream of the global cotton industry, and what the organization does affects the business of domestic cotton spinning companies to a greater or lesser extent. More importantly, early In July 2020, the United States launched the U.S. Cotton Trust Agreement in an attempt to establish its own standards.
Some domestic cotton spinning companies pointed out that if the U.S. Cotton Trust Agreement really gains actual control, the United States will inevitably require all countries to use the U.S. version of “certification standards” and “supply chain traceability systems.” In addition, The United States’ original control over international sales will make the development of China’s textile industry even more passive.
“Future Cotton” plan attracts attention
According to media reports, as early as two years ago, Zhongnong Guoji Technology Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Zhongnong Guoji”), a cotton vertical service provider headquartered in Beijing, established the “Future Cotton” plan. Zhao Yan, coordinator of the “Future Cotton” program, said that in January this year, the program made great progress after the China Fashion Designers Association and the Modern Seed Industry Development Fund joined.
Zhongnong Guoji is an industry-financing innovative technology company with leading digital cotton underlying technology and in-depth application scenarios. It is a cotton industry Internet enterprise and industry chain financial solution provider. It is also a cotton industry Industrial Internet service system operator. Zhongnong Guoji said that the company is starting to launch the “Future Cotton” plan to set China’s own cotton industry standards. Zhongnong Guoji applied to register the “Future Cotton” trademark on December 30, 2020, and is currently in the “waiting for substantive review” stage.
It is understood that “Future Cotton” is supported by Xinjiang’s high-quality cotton, through digital branding and digital traceability, and aims at low-carbonization to achieve high-quality and sustainable development. All cotton-related enterprises in the entire industry chain can participate together. High quality, digitalization, sustainability and low carbonization are the four basic principles of “Future Cotton”.
Zhongnong Guoji said that “Future Cotton” will be an ecosystem in China regarding the entire cotton industry chain, which means that from now on we will no longer be constrained by foreign systems. It is also a Chinese clothing design Teachers Association’s post-epidemic experienceUnder the current situation, the entire clothing industry is advocated for a leap-forward innovation in the integration of industry and finance and intelligent applications. “Future Cotton” can not only provide one-to-one tailor-made brand, marketing, training, management and business model innovation solutions for enterprises in the supply chain of the apparel industry, but also rely on the business functions of supply chain finance to improve accounts payable for core enterprises. It can improve the efficiency of payment management, reduce liabilities, increase credit, extend the account period, and solve the problems of financing difficulties and expensive financing for various suppliers in the upstream and downstream of the supply chain. At the same time, the smart tracking system can monitor and guarantee the flow path from raw materials to finished products, truly making The quality can be managed and controlled.
As for the planned future operation model, Zhao Yan said that the “Future Cotton” project will first consider recruiting Chinese brands, and then consider whether to recruit international brands. Brand cotton products and clothing participating in the project will have QR codes that show the entire supply chain. “By scanning the QR code, you can see which farm the cotton was grown on and which cotton spinning mill it was processed in.” , and can even track how many fabrics of the same batch have been purchased.”
Building a cotton seed quality traceability system
According to the “2019 World Trade Statistics Report” released by the WTO, China is the world’s largest textile and apparel exporting country, accounting for 33.7% of the total global export market. Xinjiang is the most important cotton producing area in China. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Xinjiang’s cotton output, unit yield, planting area, and commodity allocation volume have ranked first in the country for more than 20 consecutive years. In 2020, Xinjiang’s cotton yield was 137.5 kg/mu, 10.6% higher than the national average yield.
Chu Zhonghui, chairman of Xinjiang Yintong Cotton Co., Ltd., said: “From the perspective of cotton quality and output, the United States is the country with the largest output and largest export in the world, and the quality is good. China ranks second. But long-staple cotton is the best cotton in the world. Its softness, gloss, skin-friendliness, air permeability, elasticity and other indicators far exceed ordinary cotton. Xinjiang is one of the main producing areas of long-staple cotton. .”
“We hope to improve the overall quality of Xinjiang cotton through the ‘Future Cotton’ plan.” Luo Yan, secretary-general of the Digital Cotton Research Center, said that improving the quality of Xinjiang cotton will reduce risks. Alternatively, governments have started providing subsidies for better quality products. Luo Yan also said that the “Future Cotton” plan has recruited 32 members from Xinjiang and some domestic fashion brands. She participated in the early preparations for the Future Cotton program and helped recruit employees for the program in Xinjiang.
Data show that the Xinjiang Digital Cotton Research Center was launched in July 2020, led by Zhongnong Guoji, with participation from the Cotton Farmers Branch of the China Cotton Association, the Economic Crop Research Institute of the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Xinjiang Xingnong Network Information center and other institutions jointly initiated the establishment. It is a brand-new digital research and exchange platform voluntarily organized by participating units and specially established for the entire cotton industry chain under the background of “Digital China”.
At the recent results conference of the Digital Cotton Research Center, Luo Yan introduced that one of the key tasks of the Digital Cotton Research Center in 2021 is to continue to build and upgrade the cotton seed quality traceability system. Promote the construction of cotton brands, promote the high-quality development of the cotton industry, and fight for the turnaround of the seed industry. </p
