To help enhance supply chain traceability for brands’ textile sourcing, CottonConnect embarked on an innovative project combining digital technology with a physically traceable material.

From April 2023, an integrated traceability pilot combined CottonConnect’s bespoke traceability platform, TraceBale, with a unique DNA marker from Haelixa’s patented DNA technology solution. The test was conducted on a small amount of almost 100 MT cotton lint in the supply chain of CottonConnect’s brand partner, C&A.

Haelixa’s technology enabled fibres to be marked at early stages of the supply chain with a unique DNA marker that corresponded to the organic cotton used exclusively for the company C&A, making the material easily recognisable and traceable at every point of the supply chain up to finished products.

The unique marker is dispersed in water and can be safely applied as a fine spray at a farm, gin, spinning mill, or another facility. The marked fibres begin as lint, are spun into yarn, then woven into greige fabric, which is dyed into finished fabric and are finally made into a finished garment. CottonConnect sent samples from each of these stages to Haelixa to test if the DNA markers were identifiable. The results matched the same DNA marker as the original fibre marked, verifying that the fibres were traceable through the production process.

CottonConnect has updated TraceBale to enable the physical traceability test reports and data to be uploaded into the software platform, which will be accessible to the brand and linked processors.

The project’s success marks an advancement for the industry, and can help brands increase visibility of their supply chains and support claims about the environmental and social standards of raw material production.

About Haelixa Haelixa Ltd. pioneers developing and commercializing physical product traceability solutions to ensure complete end-to-end supply-chain transparency, focusing on sustainably manufactured products, such as organic or recycled textiles. Based on DNA markers, the Haelixa technology is physically applied to the material and stays linked, providing a traceable physical fingerprint from producer to retail. For more information, please visit www.haelixa.com.