By scanning a button sewn into the garment, cotton used to create a selection of women’s clothing by fashion label Gina Tricot can be traced back to the farmers who grew the cotton in the Macquarie Valley, New South Wales in Australia.

According to Cotton Australia’s supply chain consultant Brooke Summers, the use of technology to trace products is becoming more sought after. “There’s no doubt our brand and retail customers are looking for clever ways to trace and track their products and impact right back to farm level, and we expect new technologies to facilitate this will become more prevalent in the market,” she said.

“By getting involved in pilots like these we can learn a lot about what our customers need, as well as the limitations and challenges in working within these technologies,” she said.

Angus O’Brien, farms at Warren in the Macquarie region and was one of the farmers identified and said the blockchain technology was “impressive”. “I have an appreciation of the cotton growing process, but for someone who is in a country far removed from where this happens, it would be amazing for them to see this and learn about where their cotton came from,” he said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)