Raw Materials

2025-02-27

Better Cotton extends partnership with Cotton Australia

Better Cotton has announced the renewal of its Strategic Partnership with Cotton Australia, the official body for Australia’s cotton growers, until 2027. The agreement provides the framework for continued collaboration and ensures the organisations remain aligned in their efforts to champion more sustainably produced cotton.

Photo credit: Cotton Australia. Location: Narrabri, Australia, 2023. Description: Picker in action at Camp Cotton 2023

Since 2014, Cotton Australia’s ‘my Best Management Practice’ (myBMP) Standard has been recognised as equivalent to the Better Cotton Standard System (BCSS), enabling Australian farmers to sell their cotton as ‘Better Cotton’ in international markets.??

In the 2023/24 cotton season, licensed farmers produced more than 400,000 metric tonnes (MT) of Better Cotton, representing 40% of the country’s total cotton production.

The Australian cotton industry provides employment for more than 10,000 people and generates over AU$3.5 billion per year in export earnings, according to Cotton Australia.

Following Cotton Australia’s success in aligning its field-level requirements with Better Cotton’s updated Principles & Criteria (P&C) v.3.0, the revised myBMP Standard will be fully implemented by the 2025/26 season.??

Better Cotton requires Strategic Partners to periodically reassess and, where necessary, realign their standards with the BCSS to maintain standard equivalence. This ensures that both standards evolve to continually support cotton farmers in meeting the market demand of more sustainable cotton.?