As more consumers globally are more socially and environmentally aware, sustainability and traceability are fast becoming increasingly important issues.
AWEX's SustainaWOOL Integrity Scheme and South Africa's Cape Wools SA (CWSA) have joined forces in an innovative collaboration, to ensure greater integrity and traceability of sustainably certified sources along the entire wool value chain.
CWSA and AWEX will co-operate to identify non-mulesed Merino wool originating from SustainaWOOL Green and Gold certified growers and South African growers compliant with the Sustainable Cape Wool Standard (SCWS).
"As sustainability standard owners, we have become increasingly aware of the challenges our processing partners face in identifying sustainably-assured wool in consignments with lots from multiple grower countries," general manager Cape Wools SA Deon Saayman said.
"By having mutual recognition between the SCWS and SustainaWOOL Green and Gold, we will be creating a more efficient and cost-effective certification process for our processing partners, paving the way for joint certification between the standards."
He said by eliminating the need for role-players to independently verify the certified sustainable content of South African and Australian wool in their processing lots, it will add value to the users and enhance transparency sought by downstream users in the value chain.
"It is important to note that the two standards will maintain their independence, but we believe that this will be the first of many collaborative opportunities to create more efficient systems for our industry partners and ultimately increase the availability and access to sustainably sourced wool," Mr Saayman said.
"It is our conviction that sustainability paves the way for a bright future for the agricultural, fashion and textile industries."
AWEX CEO Mark Grave said he is confident that this will be the first of many collaborative opportunities to create more efficient and robust systems for wool industry partners and increase the availability and access to sustainably sourced wool.
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