Kasturi Cotton brand suffers due to lack of certified testing labs

India’s ambitious national cotton brand, Kasturi Cotton Bharat, is struggling to gain traction due to a shortage of authorized testing and certification labs. Experts warn, if this infrastructure gap isn't closed immediately, the entire initiative could lose its momentum.

Launched in October 2022, the Kasturi Cotton brand, aims to shed India's image as a mass producer of lower-quality, short-staple cotton and instead compete directly with international benchmarks like the US’s Supima and Egypt’s Giza cotton.

The initiative has already achieved success in boosting the cultivation of high-grade fiber. Over the past two years, production of long-staple cotton (fiber lengths of 29-30 mm with superior strength and low trash) has dramatically increased from 45,000 tons to 1.10 lakh tons. Cotton certified under the Kasturi brand is projected to command a premium of over 5 per cent in international markets.

However, this rapid growth is now creating a severe bottleneck in the certification process. Currently, only four NABL-accredited labs - ATIRA (Ahmedabad), BTRA (Mumbai), NITRA (New Delhi), and SITRA (Coimbatore) - are authorized to perform the stringent quality tests. These tests assess crucial parameters like moisture, strength, and trash content, with results then geo-tagged to ensure authenticity and traceability.

The limited testing capacity cannot keep pace with the sharp rise in production, jeopardizing producers' ability to access premium global markets in a timely manner. With increasing production and demand for certification, India needs more NABL-accredited labs to ensure faster and wider promotion of the Kasturi Cotton brand, says Siddhartha Rajagopal, Executive Director, TEXPROCIL. While several proposals for new labs are in the pipeline, delays in certification can lead to financial losses for producers trying to meet tight international deadlines, he notes.

Rajagopal emphasizes on the importance of better harvesting and storage practices, advising, farmers can improve their practices by using gloves and hair masks while plucking, and ensure low contamination.

Despite the hurdles, the government remains committed to the vision. On the most recent World Cotton Day, Giriraj Singh, Union Minister for Textiles reaffirmed the goal of building Kasturi Cotton into a trusted global brand, recognizing that a strengthened foundation is essential for India to gain the market share its high-quality fiber deserves.