3.3 GOTS and trust

There is a huge difference between standards. Some standards are purpose-based and some are inspected. Some cover only a few levels of suppliers and a few cover the entire supply chain.

GOTS is based in Germany and is often referred to as the strictest standard in the entire textile industry.

In GOTS, all suppliers in the supply chain, including packaging and trim, must self-certify to be part of a GOTS supply chain. The supply chain starts at the farmer, continues to the mill, dye house and weaving factory to the sewing house and brand holder.

All units are inspected once a year and all up to the brand holder have unannounced inspections. And certificates are only designated by GOTS.

To make sure that the amount sold does not exceed the amount harvested, everyone in the GOTS supply chain must document the amount bought and sold. This is done by TCS. TC means Transaction Certificate based on a lot of info such as shipping paper, purchase documents etc.

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