Cotton Solutions
Mitigate commercial risks and demonstrate quantity and quality compliance with tailored cotton solutions from SGS.
With over 75 years’ experience, SGS is the benchmark for quality and trust in the cotton industry. Benefit from our independent global network to access critical resources in all countries involved in the production, transit and consumption of raw cotton. We deliver a diverse array of services in accordance with trade association rules, client requirements and traditional best practices, with the utmost integrity and reliability.
Find out how we can ensure the quantity, quality and compliance of your cotton operations. Contact us today.
A Wide Range of Solutions for the Cotton Industry
Inspection and Verification to Ensure That Nothing Goes Unnoticed
Our field experts can:
- Oversee loading and unloading operations in ports, factories and warehouses
- Ensure containers, rail cars and trucks are all clean and ready to go
- Conduct and/or supervise weighing and sampling operations in gin yards, warehouses, storage areas and spinning mills
- Verify seals and confirm any short or over landed bales, and their external condition with seal-breaking, devanning and tallying (SDT) services
- Perform damage surveys to reveal the impact of country damage or fire damage as well as quantify contamination levels through foreign matter surveys
- Inspect warehouses to confirm suitability for cotton bale storage – and manage potential risks
- Check your cargo is available and stored correctly with our stock monitoring services
Safeguard the Quality and Safety of Your Cotton Supply Chain With Our Testing Solutions
We provide cotton classing and testing at our industry-leading facilities, where we can test drawn or provided samples. Our state-of-the-art laboratories offer a range of analytical services – including HVI and humidity testing – as well as traditional manual cotton classifications.
Demonstrate Your Continued Commitment Towards Sustainable Operations
SGS is the trusted verification partner of various voluntary and private cotton sustainability schemes. Whether you require chain of custody, identity preservation or a mass balance system, we provide the skills and experience you need.
Ushering in the Future of Traceability
The cotton sector is moving away from paper-based trails, transaction certificates and individual actors managing their own systems in isolation. It’s time to embrace the future of traceability. There is a clear market need for organizations to identify cotton origin, variety and conditions of harvest.
Today, multiple innovative new technologies make this possible. Using the new technology, our experts can help farmers, manufacturers and brands to verify their materials efficiently and reliably – providing detailed tracking of the raw material from farm to retail.
Stable Isotope Analysis
This technology reveals a product’s origin by identifying its unique ‘fingerprint’ which is derived from the natural chemical compositions that materials acquire when they grow in a specific location. This isotopic pattern, combined with the measurement of other trace elements that vary naturally throughout the environment, can be stored in a database for comparison.
DNA Traceability
Original DNA (or DNA tags) can be used to track supply chains and identify forgeries. DNA is invisible, difficult to recreate and requires specialized techniques to detect.
Other Tags
Organizations can also use other chemical tags to track supply chains and identify forgeries. This process generally requires the addition of fluorescent dyes or other compounds. These emit characteristic spectra which can then be detected with the appropriate detectors.
