GENEVA – A new policy brief released by a major global think tank claims that compliance with voluntary sustainability standards can help smallholder cotton farmers to be more resilient to global shocks – such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, its survey of smallholders found that although most respondents continued to sell goods over the past year – market closures and distribution delays led to more order cancellations in the cotton supply chain than smallholders in the food sector.
One study respondent estimated that 70 – 80 per cent of cotton contracts in India were ‘not honoured’ as a result of European Union (EU) market closures.
