University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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consumer spending with alternative ethical materials like hemp, jute, sisal, coir (CUP
2007) and Fair-trade products. Another potential threat to the growth of organic
cotton is from genetically modified (GM) cotton. Our interviews revealed that an
initial reduction in attack from pests, a cosmetically enhanced product and lack of
data on any of its harmful effects, is encouraging some Indian farmers to grow GM
plants in preference to either organic or normal crops. In many cases this is supported
by both explicit and less obvious government support for such practices. Although
organic products currently appear to be the preferred ‘ethical’ choice of concerned
consumers in developed countries, there is another school of thought that says that
growing crops more economically and with less waste is a better way of providing
the most benefits to the greatest number. In poorer countries this may be a hard
choice to make. In many parts of India farmers are more familiar with the term BT
cotton (a form of GM cotton) than organic cotton.
There are therefore a number of factors from both the demand and the supply side
that are likely to influence the development of the organic cotton industry and which
will affect the shape and economics of the value chain over time. In the next section
we present a value chain analysis of organic cotton in India as it is currently
constituted.
A Value Chain Analysis Of The Organic Cotton Industry In
India
The value chain that we present in this section is representative of only one moment
in time - April 2007, when our data were gathered. In this section we compare the
value chain of an a) organic cotton, b) certified organic, and c) a conventional cotton
t-shirt and identify the details of value addition at each stage in their production.
Table 4 summarises the prices achieved at each stage of the value chain; we will
discuss each of these stages in more depth below 4
4 All the values in these are expressed in US dollars which have been converted from Indian Rupees, using the
average prevalent rate during April 2007, 41 INRs = $ 1