Textile Exchange (TE) and Organic Trade Association (OTA) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together on legislative advocacy, public outreach and consumer education initiatives. The collaboration is to strengthen the North American organic textile industry’s public policy influence and public relations efforts.

The MoU was signed in conjunction with the recent formation of OTA’s Fiber Council, which was created to provide a cohesive voice across fiber categories within OTA and to grow the North American organic fiber sector overall.

US organic fiber sales were the fastest-growing non-food sector, reaching $1.1 billion in 2014, up 18 per cent from the previous year. The leading organic fiber is cotton. In 2014, U.S. growers planted organic cotton on 18,234 acres—the largest number of U.S. acres devoted to organic cotton since 1995, according to OTA’s 2015 Organic Industry Survey. Global sales of organic cotton products reached an estimated $15.7 billion in 2014, up 10 per cent from 2013, says Textile Exchange’s 2014 Organic Market Report.

The new partnership is aimed to boost outreach to North American consumers on the benefits of organic fiber and textiles, particularly the environmental and social benefits of growing and processing them. Much of the current demand for organic cotton currently comes from manufacturers and brands. With authenticity and transparency as key goals, brands are trying to position themselves to be responsible stewards —becoming more sustainable in their supply chains and more relevant in their core messaging.