Organic cotton and organic textiles are in high demand in Europe and the United States. This demand stems from increased consumer awareness that conventional cotton uses large quantities of chemical pesticides and fertilizers to grow and harsh chemicals to process, resulting in environmental pollution and ill effects on human health.

Cotton growers and ginning mills that comply with the organic standards can be certified as Organic under the National Organic Program (USA), National Programme for Organic Production (India) or EEC 834/2007 (Europe). Beyond the ginning stage, however, textiles cannot be certified as organic under these governmental programs
because these regulations do not include prescribed standards for textile processing. Upon recognition of the demand for organic textiles in the global market, an International Working Group was formed in 2002 and the resulting Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS) were developed in 2006. These standards provide for the organic certification of ginning mills, fiber trading, spinning mills, weaving/knitting, non-woven manufacture, dyeing, printing and textile trading.

The aim of GOTS is to define standards for organic textiles from the harvesting of raw materials through the environmental and socially responsible manufacture and labeling in order to provide a credible assurance to the end consumers. Final products that are produced and manufactured incompliance with all compulsory criteria of the GOTS standards (www.global-standard.org)may be sold, labeled or represented as:

OneCert, Inc. is one of few certification bodies in the world that is accredited to the GOTS standards. OneCert also provides organic certification for production and processing of organic products under the organic programs of the United States, India, and the European Union and is ISO-65 accrediated.