Over the past three years, a flood of complaints has emerged regarding a widespread scam in the organic cotton industry. Multiple cotton suppliers (Farmers United House, Om Organic Cotton Pvt Ltd, Beriwali Agriable LLP, Farmers United House, Organic Way, Udanti Farmers, Square Organics, Sohan Ginning and Processing Private Limited, Shiv Shakti Ginning and Pressing Factory, S. Ram Corporation, Maa Manikeswari Enterprises, Hanumant Oil Industries, C K Industries, Balaji Cottex, Bhalala Industries Limited, Farmer Sutra, Maa Samleswari Cotton Industries, White Gold Cotton Traders, Square Corporation, Amiha Agro Private Ltd, Spectrum Cottfibers LLP) have been accused of marketing conventional cotton as organic. In a bid to uncover the truth, our investigative team visited several locations certified by IDFL India.
What we discovered was astonishing: many of the warehouses supposedly storing organic cotton did not exist, and most of the certified ginning facilities were non-operational. Shockingly, small shops were certified as organic cotton warehouses by IDFL and their team. Lakhs of cotton bales have been dispatched from these dubious shops to prominent spinning companies like Sportking India Ltd, KPR Mills Ltd, GTN Group, Nahar Spinning Mills Limited, Technocraft Industries India Limited, Indo Count Industries Ltd., Nitin Spinners Limited, Maksons Spinning Mills PLC (Bangladesh), Square Textiles Ltd (Bangladesh).
These spinning mills, well aware of the scam, have been complicit by assisting cotton ginners in falsely labeling conventional cotton as organic. These spinners serve as key suppliers of “organic” cotton to major international brands such as Inditex (Industria de Diseño Textil, S.A. ), H&M (Hennes & Mauritz), C&A, Carrefour, Walmart, Bestseller, and SuperDry. These brands, in turn, have generated billions in revenue by misleading consumers into buying conventional cotton under the guise of organic and sustainable products.
Innocent consumers are being duped, paying a premium for organic cotton garments that are, in reality, conventional. Despite multiple complaints over the past three years to GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) and Textile Exchange, no substantial action has been taken against certification bodies like IDFL, which are aiding in this deceit.
IDFL staff have been bribed to certify non-operational ginning facilities and shops as warehouses. They have issued transaction certificates for organic products based on fake input transaction certificates. Even the USDA has reported that some certified cotton suppliers of IDFL have created fake organic cotton transaction certificates, a fact published on the USDA website. Yet, GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) and Textile Exchange have taken no action.
Key figures such as Mr. Rahul Bhajekar, Managing Director of GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard), Mr. Biko Nagara, Assurance Director of Textile Exchange, and Mr. Sivaraj Nagaraj from Textile Exchange have ignored these numerous complaints, appearing to support IDFL and various cotton suppliers in perpetuating this fraud. Despite overwhelming evidence, this fraudulent organic cotton operation continues unabated. All stakeholders involved-cotton suppliers, spinners, brands, certification bodies, and scheme owners-are reaping billions by supporting each other. Meanwhile, the only victims are the innocent consumers, who are overpaying for fake organic cotton products.
This fraudulent practice must be halted immediately. Concrete actions need to be taken against certification bodies that facilitate the certification of conventional products as organic. If scheme owners do not act, it will become evident that they are complicit in this fraud, leading consumers to lose trust in organic products and greenwashing labels like GOTS, OCS, and Oekotex Organic.