Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland has established a partnership with the non-profit Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) in Haiti to completely reimagine the cotton supply chain and create a new system for producing cotton that maximizes benefits to smallholder farmers and export customers.
The new supply chain is built around next-generation data and aims to be blockchain-ready. This will enable the partners to measure the economic, environmental, and social benefits for smallholders—farmers who farm less than two hectares or five acres of land—while at the same time measuring success for potential customers such as Timberland, Vans, and Patagonia in terms of increased transparency and efficiency.
The partnership will ultimately enable a new supply chain for Haitian-grown cotton to come to life through a blend of philanthropy and commercial investment. While the partnership’s current focus is to reintroduce organic cotton farming to Haiti, this smallholder supply-chain design and its related data-management system has the potential to be applicable to any smallholder-grown crop anywhere in the world.
