Partners Bureau Veritas for traceability & assurance
The Cotton Egypt Association (CEA) is a non-profit body established in 2005 with support from the Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade. Its mission, working closely with local and international companies involved in the Egyptian Cotton supply chain, is to protect Egyptian Cotton’s legacy of luxury and help promote all its licensees and their products.
Cotton Egypt’s mission is to manage, market, promote, license and monitor the Egyptian Cotton logo and its licensees as well as guarantee the authenticity of products licensed to use the logo. This ensures products that carry the official Egyptian Cotton logo are softer, finer and more resilient than those made from other fibres.
In 2017, total cultivation of cotton in Egypt was around 60,000 tonnes, of which about 50% is exported to markets like India, China, Pakistan and other global markets.
At Heimtextil 2018 in Frankfurt, the Association unveiled a new brand identity and digital platform to re-enforce Egyptian Cotton as the finest one in the world. The fresh, modern look is designed to convey the superior quality and natural beauty of the cotton while engaging consumers, retailers and manufacturers with its heritage and values.
Developed with the UK-based brand specialist Salesworxs, the new platform places the consumer at the centre of the Egyptian Cotton experience, with a strong emphasis on how the luxury hand-picked fabric feels against the skin.
Mr. Khaled Schuman, Executive Director of CEA, said: “We believe that everybody should experience the luxuriously soft touch of Egyptian Cotton. We want people of all ages, worldwide, to seek out its strength, softness and durability. It’s all about the personal human touch. Our Sales & Marketing partner Salesworxs has created a powerful brand identity which reflects the brand’s heritage whilst educating our audience as to our core values.”
The rebrand is designed to increase consumer demand and retailer confidence and will support the CEA drive to rid the supply chain of falsely labelled Egyptian Cotton goods.
Partnership with Bureau Veritas
In 2017, CEA announced an exclusive five-year partnership with Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services (Bureau Veritas) to provide conformity assessment services to verify that the materials are traceable to confirmed lots of true Egyptian Cotton at any stage of production.
The Egyptian Cotton Logo is a mark that helps restore faith as to the authenticity of products bearing the claim. It demonstrates that CEA has certified that the product is true Egyptian Cotton by conforming to the requirements in the factory audits and testing services and is ready for retail. The exclusive agreement with Bureau Veritas brings global scale and reach to the scheme, thanks to its leadership position within the retail / consumer goods marketplace with test labs and auditors worldwide.
Bureau Veritas will be providing the following services to companies making or selling products with the Egyptian Cotton logo:
- Factory/facility audits: Audits of the production capability and performance of a factory against Bureau Veritas’ fiber traceability facility assessment methodology. A corrective action plan is set up to help facilities who do not achieve an acceptable score within the Material Traceability Audit.
India, a key market
India is one of the largest cultivators of cotton globally and is also the largest importer of cotton from other markets. CEA has been working very closely with many large Indian textile companies, for supply of quality Egyptian cotton.
High quality extra-long staple cotton is imported from Egypt for manufacturing home textiles and apparels and exported back to global retailers in Europe, the UK, the US and other markets.
It is estimated that out of the 60,000 tonnes of cotton cultivated in Egypt, about 50% goes for export and major exports are to India, says Mr. Khaled Schuman.