Textile Exchange is making changes to the Organic Content Standard (OCS). OCS will mandatorily require that site inputs from Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) provide traceability of all transaction certificate data back to the original farm source, such as full transaction certificate data, including product and input product, and farm input data like farm capacity.

In addition, to decisively prevent fraud and to provide a double safety net, all first processors, such as cotton gins, that ultimately provide GOTS inputs into an OCS product down the supply chain need to be certified to the OCS and provide evidence of all inputs from farms.

Textile Exchange, which created the OCS, is asking certification bodies and standards users to provide this additional data and might require the former to amend contracts, policies and technology systems to make this possible.

Textile Exchange is waiving OCS certification fees through June 30, 2023, for any site that is currently GOTS certified and decides to add OCS certification; this does not apply to sites that already have OCS and GOTS certificates. Textile Exchange is also permitting certification bodies to issue OCS scope certificates without conducting audits of sites holding valid GOTS certificates with the same validity through the same date.