India : Seal Of Cotton Trademark Launched

The Seal of Cotton Trademark has beencommercially launched. Products that have this seal will officially hit the stands at stores and retail outlets as well.

This is the first time the Seal, promoted by the Cotton Gold Alliance (CGA) in India, has been promoted outside North America. It is hoping to increase demand for cotton in India. The CGA is an initiative of Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated, both non-profit US-based organisations promoting cotton. According to Mr B.K. Patodia, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, GTN Textiles Ltd, one of the 10 companies that have signed up to use the Seal of Cotton Trademark on its products, the main intention is to encourage the use of cotton as a fibre, especially considering the competition cotton now faces from man-made fibres.

Mr Patodia said customers would be assured that the product was 100 per cent cotton and conformed to a certain standard. At the retail level, he said, customers often found it difficult to make out whether the product was made of natural or man-made fibre.

The trademark provides branded identification that the finest quality cotton has been used in the apparel/textile product and is likely to be extended to manufacturing, processing and the retail sector.

Mr Patodia said production would conform to certain standards and these, perhaps, would entail sending samples for testing and other criteria.

GTN Textiles Ltd has four spinning units, 1,60,000 spindles and exports about Rs 350 crore of cotton yarn. The company is certain that with the advertisement campaigns on the anvil, consumer awareness about the Seal will increase. In the US and Europe, the Seal is a common feature in large retail stores.

Three companies that signed up to use the seal on their products last October were GTN Textiles, the Ashima group and Vardhman Spinning. Since then their numbers have swelled with Arvind Brands, Century Textiles, Crocodile, Raymond and Shoppers' Stop joining the ranks.

The CGA is also launching an ad campaign, the New Face of Cotton, that will try to emphasise the dynamic, versatile and comfortable nature of cotton.

In fact, according to available figures, in the US, campaigns promoting the Seal of Cotton have managed to raise cotton's market share from 34 per cent in the 1970s to 60 per cent today.