Kontoor Brands is expanding its collaboration with Dallas-based Panda Biotech, LLC, an emerging leader in the industrial hemp fiber industry. Through this collaboration, Kontoor Brands and Panda Biotech plan to bring traceability and scale to the textile-grade cottonized hemp grown and processed in the United States.

Both companies will focus on traceability from farm to product. Industrial hemp is a regenerative crop due to its ability to grow with little water, minimal-to-no pesticides and herbicides, production of a high per acre fiber yield, and absorption of more carbon dioxide per acre than any forest or commercial crop.

As a global producer of millions of products each year, Kontoor Brands is committed to using its global scale to advance the denim industry. Earlier this year, Kontoor expanded its Indigood Progam, an initiative that targets water savings during the fabric construction phase of the apparel supply chain. The company remains focused on sourcing and producing apparel and accessories in a way that’s good for people and the planet and is committed to bringing consumers the latest in sustainable fashion through the commercialization of cottonized hemp.

Through the Panda Biotech collaboration, which first kicked off in 2019 after the passing of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, Kontoor Brands plans to have US grown and processed hemp in market in its denim apparel by 2023.