Wednesday
Apr082009
Retailers Seeing Growth in Consumer Purchasing of Organic Cotton Products
April 8, 2009 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis 
A United States cotton field. Photo courtesy of Cottonusa.com
LUBBOCK, Texas- Contrasting the continuing sales slumps in the traditional garment industry, the organic cotton side of the market is thriving. Global retail sales of organic apparel and home textile products reached an estimated $3.2 billion in 2008. This represents a 63 percent increase from the $1.9 billion market in 2007, according to the Organic Cotton Market Report 2007-2008.
The report just released by the Organic Exchange, a non-profit organization promoting the expansion of organic agriculture, with a specific focus on increasing the production and use of organically grown fibers such as cotton.
The top ten organic cotton-using brands and retailers globally were:
- Wal-Mart, Bentonville, Ark.
- C&A, Brussels, Belgium
- Nike, Beaverton, Ore.
- H&M, Stockholm, Sweden
- Zara, A Coruna, Spain
- Anvil, Knitwear, Inc., New York, N.Y.
- Coop Switzerland, Basel, Switzerland
- Pottery Barn, San Francisco, Calif.
- Greensource, Seattle, Wash.
- Hess Natur, Butzbach, Germany