Orta upholds GMO-free Turkish cotton
27/01/2023
Turkey, which ranks seventh in cotton producing countries worldwide, is among the few nations to have banned the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for any crop related to human consumption (they are allowed for animal feed), as Emre Öztürk, a manager at the Istanbul Textile & Raw Materials Exporters’ Association (ITKIB) told Inside Denim. With the Izmir Commodity Exchange and the National Cotton Council, ITKIB is one of the three organisations to have founded the GMO-free Turkish Cotton initiative three years ago.
Turkey signed the Cartagena Protocol in 2000, an international framework in support of biodiversity, and its Biosafety Law, enacted in 2010, banned the use of GMO cotton seeds, including for R&D purposes.
The new GMO-free Turkish cotton certificate, delivered by third party auditors, proves the provenance of the raw material. Orta, as mentioned above, is the first denim mill to obtain this certification. It adds another resource to the sustainable cotton fibres the mill uses which include Better Cotton, organic cotton (GOTS and OCS certified), recycled cotton (GRS certified), FairTrade certified cotton and Regenagri certified regenerative cotton.
Dr. Sedef Uncu Aki, who leads Orta Denim’s sales, marketing, product development, sustainability, operations and R&D, commented: “In 2021, we achieved an eco-manufacturing feat with 55% of our cotton used being organic, better cotton or pre- and post-consumer recycled. This new partnership with GMO-free Turkish Cotton meets critical environmental and social compliances important to our Bluesky mission. It is truly exciting for us, as we can now source certified local fibre that covers a better practice than conventional systems due to non-GMO content.”
Photo by Sze Yin Chan on Unsplash
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