Australian authentication solutions provider Security Matters (SMX) has announced that it’s working with the Israeli Cotton Board (ICB) to trial its chemical marker technology and blockchain platform in cotton supply chains. The pair has signed a first collaborative agreement for a project that will mark conventional and organic cotton at the farm level, as to assess whether these materials can be traced throughout the manufacture of garments, even to a product’s end-of-life. Subject to its success, SMX and ICB says the technology could be adopted by cotton growers across Israel and potentially around the world.
The ICB represents cotton farmers across Israel, all of which produce material certified by the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). The BCI supports farmers in adopting sustainable best practices, ensuring the long-term health of the land whilst championing the cultivation of more sustainable cotton. It’s with the rapid uptake ‘sustainable’ materials by fashion brands and retailers that the cotton produced by ICB farmers could be the subject of counterfeiting. It’s this area that SMX specialises in offering protection.
The Melbourne-based tech company, through its Fashion Sustainability Competence Centre, has already successfully deployed its chemical marker technology and blockchain solution to trace textile-based products such as t-shirts and shoes throughout apparel supply chains.
Integrating a unique marker within the make-up of a textile enables it to authenticate the material when it’s in the latter stages of the supply chain, where it could be at risk of being intercepted by criminals.
With this technology then, coupled with blockchain – which establishes a digital chain-of-custody over the movement of materials by requiring stakeholders to log product-specific data – it’s said that Israeli cotton farmers can gain the assurance that their materials are verifiable throughout the supply chain.
“We believe in harnessing advanced technologies like SMX to protect and benefit our growers and enable our customers to obtain digital blockchain certification and be able to tangibly verify that the cotton purchased from ICB is 100 per cent BCI certified, and the conventional and organic cotton grown in Israeli is genuine,” the ICB’s Chief Executive, Yizhar Landau told.
Haggai Alon, CEO of Security Matters, added: “SMX’s collaborative project for conventional and organic cotton with ICB demonstrates our commitment to enable all value chain players, from the conventional and organic cotton growers to manufacturers and brands, to meet the sustainability and ESG expectations of its consumers and stakeholders, whilst meeting the demands of the market and their financial goals.”
