Creating a transparent supply chain

In the cashmere production sector, animal welfare is taking ever greater priority. Consumers also want transparency and traceability for the raw material in the textile chain. In response, The Good Cashmere Standard® has developed the Cashmere Tracking System (CATS). Anja Neumann, Project Manager Business Development at GCS explains how it works.

Ms Neumann, why was CATS developed?

Consumers are increasingly interested in the origin of the raw material and the resulting products. They
want to know how the production process stacks up in terms of animal welfare, working conditions, and
environmental sustainability. However, retailers and brands often do not have precise answers to these
questions themselves, so the first step needs to be creating a transparent supply chain. We developed CATS to meet this need in the cashmere production sector.

What kind of information does CATS track?

CATS is a tracking system that allows all orders to be traced back from the finished product to the cashmere producer. Only certified cashmere producers and farmers who have successfully completed the audit process are integrated into CATS, where individual balances of GCS-certified cashmere are recorded. Using this asset-balance account, registered spinning mills can source cashmere and fulfil GCS orders. Currently, no other standard in the cashmere industry provides such a comprehensive system.

What are the objectives of CATS?
The tracking system is intended to ensure greater transparency and traceability in the textile supply chain. In addition, CATS provides a precise overview of the cashmere quantities used by each GCS partner. In this way, CATS guarantees that only as much certified cashmere can be sold as is actually available. This prevents fraud and lets our partners be confident that their products contain only GCS-certified cashmere. Another benefit is that CATS does not require the supply chain to undergo significant changes, if any. Our
partners simply share their supply chains with us, and we integrate the various stages into the system.

Who can use CATS?

The system is available to all GCS partners throughout the textile supply chain. The GCS team is happy
to answer any questions regarding its use.

Benefits of CATS at a glance

• Simple handling sets a new market standard for the cashmere industry.
• Registered spinning mills are recorded in the system and can receive orders from the partners.
• Complete traceability is ensured throughout the supply chain.
• Retailers/brands receive a detailed overview of the processing workflow in the production chain and of how much certified cashmere is used.
•  Up-to-date status reports for the orders are available at any time.
• Dependability is ensured throughout the production chain because only registered companies within the supply chain are involved in production.
• GCS labels can be requested through the system, from the designated label producer Nilorn. To prevent labels from being issued improperly, the number of labels is limited by the orders placed in the system.