Annual Report 2021

Our Annual Report offers an important opportunity to reflect on the impact we made in 2021, examine challenges and success in the field and on the market successes as well as stakeholder insights into various topics about sustainability in the cotton and cashmere industry. Above that, we share key financial information how the income we generate through market activities are spent to make a valuable and measurable impact for nature protection, farmers’ and animals’ welfare.

“Making sure that trade in these goods is fair and using it as a catalyst for change in commodity producing countries has been the Aid by Trade Foundation’s guiding principle for more than 15 years.”

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THERE IS NO PLANET B
THE CMIA CARBON NEUTRAL INITIATIVE

Climate change is already making itself felt throughout the world, causing floods, protracted droughts, and unusual heatwaves. To address these issues, we need to limit global warming and develop strategies for adapting to climate changes and their implications. These are difficult but essential tasks for the whole international community, including the cotton and textile industries. CmiA helps small-scale farmers build resilience through digital knowledge transfer, new partnerships, and climate-smart agriculture.

BREAKING RECORDS AND MEETING CHALLENGES THROUGH INNOVATION

2021 was a year of growth for Cotton made in Africa.
Despite the stream of challenges posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, its partners continued to pursue their sustainability goals throughout the global value chain with focus and commitment. Demand for CmiA verified cotton climbed to record highs, while the initiative actively expanded its digital monitoring scheme in order to further increase the transparency of how CmiA cotton is processed in globally interconnected supply chains. CmiA can now provide the detailed data that companies and end consumers wish for so that the former can advertise how their goods were produced and the latter can make informed purchasing decisions.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF COTTON PRODUCTION WITH CMIA

Cotton made in Africa has built itself a reputation for making a difference and reporting its achievements credibly. In 2021, the initiative succeeded in strengthening target groups’ sense of emotional connection to the label and in communicating CmiA’s social and environmental benefits. To make ist impact visible to the public, we work with international and local photographers to offer a look behind the scenes of cotton production with CmiA.

Malicky Boaz, a young photographer from Tanzania, loves to shoot wildlife, nature, landscapes, and lifestyles. Five years ago, he decided to become a professional photographer to capture an entirely new perspective on everyday life. In an interview, he takes us along on a journey to Tanzania, where he shot a Cotton made in Africa photo campaign about CmiA Organic, and introduces us to the virtual art scene in his East African home country.

MALICKY BOAZ
Photographer & Graphic Designer

THE GOOD CASHMERE STANDARD® SETS A BENCHMARK FOR SUSTAINABLE CASHMERE PRODUCTION

In 2020, the Aid by Trade Foundation launched The Good Cashmere Standard (GCS) as the world’s first independent standard for sustainable cashmere in order to promote the welfare of cashmere goats, to improve the working conditions of farmers, and to protect the environment. From the start, the Aid by Trade Foundation has been working in Inner Mongolia, one of the world’s main producers of cashmere, to make measurable improvements in animal welfare and to ensure cashmere goats are treated appropriately. In two short years, the levels of both supply and demand for cashmere produced in line with the standard have grown exponentially. In 2021, nearly twice as much cashmere was certified by The Good Cashmere Standard and processed into textiles as in the previous year.
This represents a significant milestone for The Good Cashmere Standard as well as a key step in the right direction for transforming the textile sector.

Financial Overview 2021:

In 2021, the Aid by Trade Foundation’s revenue and results continued to grow significantly, with total revenue rising by 37 percent to reach EUR 5.9 million. Most of this, EUR 5.2 million, was generated through private-sector market activities undertaken by Cotton made in Africa and The Good Cashmere Standard. Despite pandemic-related restrictions, expenditure on programmes implementing the two sustainability standards and on cooperation projects increased by nearly 30 percent, to EUR 3.1 million.

	kEUR	in %	2020 kEUR
License fee income	3,879	65%	2,769
Partnership contributions	1,324	22%	787
Donations	666	11%	606
Grants	29	0,5%	26
Private subsidies	0	0,0%	32
Other income	39	1%	105
Total income	5,937	100%	4,325
	kEUR %	2021 in %	2020 in %
Income from business operations	5,242	88%	85%
Income from donations and grants	695	12%	15%

REVENUES IN 2021

EXPENSES IN 2021

	kEUR	in %	2020 kEUR
Management and administration	529	13%	454
Programme implementation	2,688	68%	1,898
Co-operation projects	408	10%	501
Marketing, sales, communication	365	9%	326
Total expenses	3,990	100%	3,179
		in %	2020 in %
Programme service expense ratio = (Programme service expenses) / (Total expenses)		78%	75%

THE CMIA CARBON NEUTRAL INITIATIVE BREAKS NEW GROUND IN DECARBONISING COTTON PRODUCTION

With a wide array of projects in many countries in the Global South, atmosfair is one of the world’s leading climate protection organisations. It is working with the Aid by Trade Foundation to achieve a transition towards CO2-neutral cotton production in CmiA countries as part of the CmiA Carbon Neutral Initiative. We joined Hansjörg Zeller, the head of atmosfair’s New Technologies team, and Nele Erdmann, a senior project developer at atmosfair, to discuss the main challenges they face and the most important steps that need to be taken to address them.

HANSJÖRG ZELLER Team Lead New Technologies at atmosfair

NELE ERDMANN Senior Project Manager at atmosfair

WORKING WITH CMIA HAS MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO CERTIFY THAT OUR COTTON PRODUCTION MEETS A RECOGNISED SUSTAINABILITY STANDARD

IVOIRE COTON is a cotton company that supports the development of small-scale cotton farms in Côte d’Ivoire. The impacts of such assistance can often improve living conditions more widely throughout the region. The head of the company’s Studies and Projects Division, Vassiriki Kone, offers an insight into its work with CmiA in the following interview, where he discusses successful projects and what the future may hold.

VASSIRIKI KONE Head of Studies and Projects at IVOIRE COTON

WITH THE CURRENT CHALLENGES AROUND ORGANIC COTTON, IT IS GREAT TO SHARE AN AUTHENTIC AND VERIFIED STORY

BESTSELLER is an international, family-owned fashion company with a range of more than 20 individual fashion brands. It is also the first one to use Cotton made in Africa Organic. In the following interview, Danique Lodewijks, a senior project specialist at BESTSELLER, explains how the company is moving away from the traditional, linear way of sourcing and what role CmiA Organic plays in this process.

DANIQUE LODEWIJKS Senior Project Specialist at Bestseller Group

TRANSPARENCY IN THE TEXTILE SUPPLY CHAIN IS THE FUTURE

A huge exporter that supplies knitted yarn for all the major retail brands around the world, the Ahmed Group is also a longtime partner of CmiA. In an interview, Sajid Israq, one of the directors of the Ahmed Group Textile Division, discusses the demand for transparency in the supply chain, the value of the Sustainable Cotton Tracker (SCOT), and his experiences with upcharges for CmiA-labelled cotton and yarn.

SAJID ISRAQ Director at the Ahmed Group

CMIA HAS SHOWN ITSELF TO BE HIGHLY RELIABLE AND ACCESSIBLE IN THESE VOLATILE AND CHALLENGING TIMES

The German retailer Ernsting’s family intends to use exclusively sustainable cotton by 2026. CmiA plays a key role in the company’s plans to reach this goal, as Anna Rensing, the head of its quality development department and the person in charge of product sustainability at Ernsting’s family, explains in this interview.

ANNA RENSING Head of Quality Assurance at Ernsting’s family GmbH & Co. KG

USING A HIGHER-QUALITY CERTIFICATION SUCH AS THE GOOD CASHMERE STANDARD IS A GOOD WAY TO START!

Only a small percentage of animal-derived fibres used in the textile industry are currently certified according to animal welfare standards. We spoke with Dr Marlene Kirchner, a veterinarian and the lead expert on farm animals and nutrition at FOUR PAWS, and Jessica Medcalf, the organisation’s global corporate engagement manager, about the sensitive topic of animal welfare in fashion.