An increasing number of companies are proudly wearing the Global Organic Textile Standard badge.
According to GOTS, the organization that is internationally recognized for setting standards for apparel and home textiles made with organic fibers, 5,024 facilities were GOTS certified last year, up 8.2% from 4,642 in 2016.
GOTS certified facilities are now located in 62 countries around the world, with continuous growth in both production, as well as consuming regions. In 2017, a GOTS-accredited team reported more than 1.74 million people working in GOTS-certified facilities.
Bangladesh (up 40 percent), North America (up 39 percent) and Portugal (up 39 percent) were the three areas with the largest increase in GOTS certified facilities. Europe, up 20 percent, was fourth.
The top 10 countries in terms of total number of certified facilities are India (1,658), Bangladesh (534), Germany (480), Turkey (445), Italy (307), China (292), Pakistan (194), Portugal (180), USA (99) and South Korea (69).
“The growing number of GOTS certifications shows that GOTS is taken as a solution for managing risks, reputation and market differentiation,” GOTS director Claudia Kersten said at the GOTS Annual Meeting in Charleston, S.C. “We are very pleased with the development in North America. It will have the same pull effect as also seen in Europe by creating increasing capacities in the producing countries.”
Adding to that, GOTS representative in North America Lori Wyman, said she’s pleased with the uptick in the U.S.
“It is very gratifying to see the North American marketplace for GOTS certification starting to catch up with our European colleagues,” Wyman said. “Consumers here are demanding third-party verification on organic claims, and we can provide that assurance to them.”
Separate from the increase in certified facilities, there was also a 14 percent increase in the number of chemicals on the GOTS Positive List, which reached more than 17,900 from 720 manufacturers. The GOTS Positive List contains trade names of approved chemicals that must be used by all textile processors for their GOTS-certified production.