The Primark Cotton Project

What is the Primark Cotton Project?

The Primark Cotton Project is an initiative that supports cotton farmers across India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan by helping them adopt farming practices which use less water and fewer chemical fertilisers and pesticides. This helps to improve soil health, increase crop yield and reduce the impact that cotton farming can have on the environment.

These practices can make cotton farming more efficient and help the farmers involved to save money and increase their overall farming productivity, which can improve their income.

The Primark Cotton Project launched in 2013 with 1,251 female farmers in Gujarat, India. Over the past decade, it has grown to support more than 300,000 farmers and has become the largest programme of its kind run by a single fashion retailer.

How does it work?

We’re training cotton farmers to use less water, to use less chemicals, and improve their farming skills such as seed selection and crop management. The training we provide follows CottonConnect’s REEL Regenerative Code – a set of farming guidelines that focus on making agriculture more sustainable with less impact on the environment.

Primark Cotton Project farmers can put their new skills straight into use, cutting the cost of growing cotton, boosting their crop yield and improving their earnings. Many have used the additional income gained by using their new approaches in growing cotton to invest in farm equipment, support their children’s education, or improve their housing or lifestyle.

We’re also exploring the potential of regenerative farming, and 3,000 farmers are currently part of a pilot programme where they’re gaining further knowledge on improving biodiversity and soil health. By 2030, we aim to make these regenerative practices a fundamental part of the Primark Cotton Project. You can read more about this here.

Why is the Primark Cotton Project important for Primark?

1. We use cotton more than any other material

The Primark Cotton Project is crucial for us because cotton is the main natural fibre in our clothing and textiles.

As part of our commitment to using recycled and more sustainably sourced materials, we’re aiming for 100% of our cotton in our clothing to be organic, recycled, or sourced from the Primark Cotton Project by 2027.

We first introduced cotton from the Primark Cotton Project into our women’s nightwear range in 2017 and can now be found in all product categories. Today, 57% of our cotton clothing units are either organic, recycled, or sourced from the Primark Cotton Project.

2. It supports our traceability goals

The Primark Cotton Project also improves the traceability of our cotton supply chain. We partner with CottonConnect and use their TraceBale system to track cotton from Primark Cotton Project farmers through the supply chain. We also collaborate with Oritain, a specialist scientific verification firm, to verify the origin of our cotton using forensic science techniques, who we have worked with since 2018.

How does it work?

The Primark Cotton Project is all about helping cotton farming communities to thrive. We’re training cotton farmers to use less water, to use less chemicals, and improve their farming skills such as seed selection and crop management. The training we provide follows CottonConnect’s REEL Regenerative Code – a set of farming guidelines that focus on making agriculture more sustainable with less impact on the environment.

Primark Cotton Project farmers can put their new skills straight into use, cutting the cost of growing cotton, boosting their crop yield and improving their earnings. Many have used the additional income gained by using their new approaches in growing cotton to invest in farm equipment, support their children’s education, or improve their housing or lifestyle.

We’re also exploring the potential of regenerative farming, and 3,000 farmers are currently part of a pilot programme where they’re gaining further knowledge on improving biodiversity and soil health. By 2030, we aim to make these regenerative practices a fundamental part of the Primark Cotton Project. You can read more about this here.

Why is the Primark Cotton Project important for Primark?

1. Cotton is our biggest raw material

The Primark Cotton Project is crucial for us because cotton is the main natural fibre in our clothing and textiles.

As part of our commitment to using recycled and more sustainably sourced materials, we’re aiming for 100% of our cotton in our clothing to be organic, recycled, or sourced from the Primark Cotton Project by 2027.

We first introduced cotton from the Primark Cotton Project into our women’s nightwear range in 2017, since then it has expanded into all the major product categories where we use cotton such as menswear, womenswear, kidswear and homeware (bedding). Today, 46% of our cotton clothing units are either organic, recycled, or sourced from the Primark Cotton Project.

2. It supports our traceability goals

The Primark Cotton Project also enhances the traceability of our cotton supply chain. We partner with CottonConnect and use their TraceBale system to track cotton from Primark Cotton Project farmers through the supply chain. We also collaborate with Oritain, a specialist scientific verification firm, to verify the origin of our cotton using forensic science techniques.

To date, Oritain has mapped the sources of more than 90% of the world’s cotton in their databases, including the locations in which our Project operates. We’ve worked with Oritain since 2018 to validate samples taken at various stages of the Primark Cotton Project cotton supply chain – from the farms themselves, when the cotton has gone through the ginning process and subsequently after the spinning process.

How Oritain traceability mapping works

We also partner with TrusTrace, which allows us to gather data from the full supply chain of a product, from its raw materials all the way through to finished product. Our Transparency and Traceability team use this information to better understand and manage our supply chain.

3. It supports farmers in the face of climate change

Through initiatives like the Primark Cotton Project, we're helping cotton farmers build resilience in the face of environmental pressures. For example, in collaboration with CottonConnect and REEDS in Pakistan, we've provided vital resources like mobile medical and veterinary services, livestock and supported with infrastructure repairs during challenging environmental crises, like floods. By focusing on practical support and long-term solutions, we aim to help cotton farming communities remain resilient and sustainable, ensuring their essential role in our supply chain remains strong despite climate pressures.

10 Years - A Journey Milestone

In 2023, we celebrated a decade of investing in farmers in our cotton supply chains across India, Bangladesh and Pakistan through the Primark Cotton Project. In that time, we’ve trained more than 300,000 farmers with the help of partners like CottonConnect and local partners the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and Myrada in India; the Rural Education & Economic Development Society (REEDS) in Pakistan and Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha in Bangladesh.

We also continue to offer essential life skills training to women farmers in Bangladesh and Pakistan, helping them gain self-reliance and financial independence. So far, nearly 12,000 women have taken part in this training.

To date, Oritain has mapped the sources of more than 90% of the world’s cotton in their databases, including the locations in which our Primark Cotton Project operates. Fabric and yarn can be tested against the genuine ‘Origin Fingerprint’ stored in the database to see if they match.

We’ve worked with Oritain since 2018 to validate samples taken at various stages of the Primark Cotton Project supply chain – from the farms themselves, when the cotton has gone through the ginning process and subsequently after the spinning process.

Supporting Farmers in the Face of Climate Change

All Primark Cotton Project farmers in Pakistan were affected to varying degrees by the floods in June 2022 which caused damage to crops, livestock, houses and community infrastructure. We worked closely with CottonConnect and REEDS to assess the damage and to understand what support they needed. The Primark Flood Relief Project was established and £140,000 was given to support the setup of 20 mobile medical and veterinary camps. These camps provided support to 2,000 people and 3,000 livestock. 250 families also received goats and hens, while 130 hand pumps and community toilets damaged by the floods were repaired and rebuilt.

The Primark Sustainable Cotton Programme becomes the Primark Cotton Project

The Primark Sustainable Cotton Programme was renamed to the Primark Cotton Project in 2024 to align with the latest regulations and guidance on environmental claims. However, nothing about the programme itself has changed. We continue to train and support cotton farmers in agricultural methods which aim to increase the amount of cotton grown, reduce their input costs and therefore boost farmers profits. In line with our commitment to drive the uptake of more regenerative farming within the Primark Cotton Project by 2030, we continue to train farmers in how to reduce their use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers to grow cotton.