Cottoning On To A Good Thing

It’s been four years since the Department of Trade and Industry launched an initiative to increase capacity and competitiveness in South Africa’s textile and apparel industries. CEO of Cotton SA Hennie Bruwer spoke to Robyn Joubert about the programme’s achievements so far.

- Hennie Bruwer

What’s the difference between the Southern African Sustainable Textile and Apparel Cluster (SASTAC) and the Sustainable Cotton Cluster?

On 1 April 2014, the Department of Trade and Industry [DTI] officially launched a five-year plan to establish a national textile cluster, SASTAC, supported by a R200-million grant fund. Its aim was to improve capacity and competitiveness and to create jobs in the cotton, textile and apparel industry value chains.

The cotton industry formed the Sustainable Cotton Cluster (SCC) in May 2014 to serve the cotton-specific interventions. It’s made great progress, and there’s now a big drive to get the other fibres on board. The SCC brings together the entire cotton supply chain under one umbrella: farmers, ginneries, yarn manufacturers, dyers, finishing plants, weavers, retailers and consumers. The stakeholders are working together to improve the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the cotton industry.

What is the Integrated Supply Chain Programme?

SASTAC has developed a supply chain traceability and procurement platform, which offers full traceability and visibility of the value chain from farm to retail. The Mr Price Group has been actively involved in the SCC since its inception, and served as the pilot for the first Integrated Supply Chain Programme (ISCP) in 2015. The ISCP is driven by retail demand and is built on virtual partnerships among supply chain stakeholders, from farm to retail. It supports ‘near sourcing’ and ‘quick response’ and provides for supply chain transparency, price surety and stakeholder trust.

Since the ISCP pilot, Edcon, Clicks and Woolworths have come on board. What’s convincing retailers to join the SCC?