University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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own standards to certify various finishing processes as organic. However, by any
objective measure the fabrics produced following these standards cannot be
considered truly organic because of the permitted use of chemical, non vegetable,
dyes. The main aim of these certification processes is to ‘maintain the integrity of the
organic nature of the fibre as much as possible’ (Sanfillipo 2007). The chemicals
used in this kind of procedure are slightly more expensive than conventional
chemicals (a difference of 2 - 12 cents per kg).
There are other concerns as to whether these products should be labelled as organic.
The first is to do with the quality of the finish. For example. some organic
certifications allow chemicals to be used in small proportions to achieve certain
finishes and quality; full colour fastness, whiteness and softness can only be achieved
using non organic chemicals. Standards can also vary between countries. One of the
certifying organisations, GOTS, allows the use of certain chemicals in the US but not
in the UK. So at the moment, the certification process is rather vague and open to
some interpretation. Nevertheless a premium can be obtained at this stage (Table 11).
Price difference in
organic and conventional
cotton finished fabric
(per Kg)
$ 3. 46
Additional cost of organic cotton
griege fabric required to produce 1
Kg of organic cotton finished
fabric
$ 2. 62
Table 11: Value addition at the finishing stage
Garment Cutting and Stitching
Value addition
at finishing
stage
$ 0. 84
Garment cutting and stitching is the final stage of production before the finished
clothes are sent to retailers. Owing to the fact that both organic and conventional
cotton are stitched following same process, there is little scope for value addition at
this stage, although a premium price (5% typically) is usually charged by garment
manufacturers. The cutting process normally results in a significant wastage of fabric,
the costs of which are higher for organic cotton producers simply because of the
higher costs of the raw materials.
Organic cotton can lose some of its properties when stored with non-organic cotton.
It is possible for the free formaldehyde (a skin irritant and carcinogenic) that is
sometimes used in the production of normal cotton to be transferred to the organic
products. Packing organic garments separately in paper bags helps to avoid
contamination, as well as mis-labelling and fraud, but this results in an additional
cost of around 8 cents per garment. The value addition at the garment stitching stage
is shown in Table 12.