Better Cotton gave its blessing to a strategic roadmap created with agricultural and textile stakeholders in Uzbekistan to accelerate the country’s sustainable cotton production.
The global cotton sustainability initiative held an event in the nation’s capital, Tashkent, gathering representatives from government, civil society and fashion supply chains to formalize the agreement.
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The roadmap lays out three core objectives: to align a strategic partnership model and define management, finance and implementation responsibilities; to ensure effective cooperation with program partners and stakeholders to promote sustainable cotton farming; and to develop and implement a joint set of measures designed to eliminate barriers to scale.
“This roadmap signals that there is much more to come from Better Cotton in Uzbekistan,” said Katerina Gorbunova, country manager of the Better Cotton Uzbekistan Program. “Together with our partners, we can strengthen the foundations of the Uzbekistan program and develop new solutions to ensure long-term success.”
The agreement with Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Textile and Garment Industry Association (Uztekstilprom) aims to improve the Better Cotton Uzbekistan Program by leveraging resources to streamline farmer enrollment, strengthen and expand field-level support and increase investment opportunities through grants and government subsidies.
A key initiative of the agreement will be training for the Ministry of Agriculture and Uztekstilprom that will allow them to lead engagement with cotton farming communities and meet Better Cotton’s program partner requirements. The roadmap also outlines strategies to reduce audit fatigue, improve the flow of assessment data and engage the supply chain to demonstrate the benefits of processing Better Cotton fiber.
Uzbekistan is one of the world’s largest cotton-producing countries, growing approximately 740,000 metric tons of the fiber in 2022-2023, according to Statista. The Central Asian country is known for its distinctive “cotton clusters”—vertically integrated enterprises which grow, harvest and process cotton.
Better Cotton, which operates in 22 countries and accounts for 22 percent of global cotton, launched in Uzbekistan in 2022 following assurance from the International Labor Organization (ILO) that the country had successfully eliminated systemic child and forced labor in its cotton production. Partners in the program work with agricultural communities at the field level to ensure their production meets Better Cotton’s standards, which cover six areas: management, natural resources, crop protection, fiber quality, decent work and sustainable livelihoods.
The organization announced in September that it would transition to third-party validation after coming under fire for deficiencies in its due-diligence process and other issues. Better Cotton said it would employ external parties to conduct assessments and make certification decisions in an effort to improve the credibility of its process.
Better Cotton partners with more than 300 brands and retailers, including Adidas, Gap Inc., H&M and Zara parent company Inditex.
