This year's Stakeholder Conference of Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) and the Competitive African Cotton Initiative (COMPACI) was held from September 7 to 8 in Munich. This was attended by over 100 experts in the textile value chain from over 20 countries. This was also where the two ends of the textile production chain met. Companies and brands like OTTO, Ernsting's family, Engelbert Strauss, Sportscheck and Jack & Jones were at one end while cotton producers from Africa were at the other. They discussed how to achieve sustainability in the field, transparency along the supply chain, and new communication strategies for trading sustainable products. .

Helmut Fischer, Head of the Division "Sustainability Standards" at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), inaugurated this year's annual conference and underlined the importance of CmiA as one of the main standards for sustainable cotton.

Like always, the conference followed the thread from the field of fashion. Since the increased significance of sustainable cotton and textiles is fuelling demand for transparency in the supply chain, therefore Cotton made in Africa offers solutions which can be easily put into practice with the help of new technologies and expert knowledge.

CmiA is an initiative of the Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF) and has set itself the goal of helping people to help themselves through trade in order to improve the living conditions of cotton farmers and their families in sub-Saharan Africa while on the other hand, COMPACI (Competitive African Cotton Initiative) was founded in 2008 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on the back of the successful Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) pilot with a view to subsidizing the income of African cotton farmers.