The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is the leading sustainability benchmark for organic textiles. In the post-harvest supply chain, certified gins play a crucial role by separating cotton lint from seeds and impurities. GOTS certification ensures that even the ginning stage meets strict environmental and social criteria. The latest Certification and Operating Parameters for GOTS Certified Gins (Version 2.1, Dec 2025) introduce updated requirements to strengthen organic cotton integrity. Understanding these changes helps organic cotton producers, textile manufacturers, and sustainability professionals maintain compliance and traceability. This article highlights key points from each section of the new guidelines.
GOTS Certification of Ginners
Independent Certification Required: All ginner facilities (and subcontracted gins) must be independently certified to GOTS, even if listed as a subcontractor under another certified entity. In practice, this means every gin processing organic cotton lint needs its own GOTS Scope Certificate.
Common Certification Body (CB): If a company (Certified Entity, CE) uses multiple ginners, all its subcontracted gins must be certified by the same certification body (CB) as the CE. This ensures consistent oversight and simplifies auditing across the supply chain.
Certification Body Transfers: Gins may only switch to a new CB after three years of continuous GOTS certification, unless special exceptions apply (e.g. if a CB is suspended). When a gin does migrate, the previous CB must issue a No Objection Certificate (NOC) within 4 weeks to the new CB. During any transfer of certification, both CBs must reconcile and verify all closing stock of organic lint.
Unannounced Audits: Certification bodies are required to conduct unannounced inspections of high-risk ginneries. GOTS staff may observe these audits to further ensure compliance.
These rules underscore that GOTS certified ginners form the foundation of an authentic organic cotton chain. All gins handling organic lint must be fully certified and accountable under GOTS.
Procurement of Organic Raw Cotton
Global Fibre Registry (GFR): Ginners may only accept raw cotton from organic farms or farm groups that are pre-registered in the Global Fibre Registry (GFR). (The GFR, formerly the Farm-Gin Registry, is a traceability database for organic fiber transactions.) No raw cotton through intermediaries (e.g. traders) is allowed.
Documentation and Limits:
Transaction Certificates (TCs): Raw cotton must be accompanied by a GOTS Transaction Certificate. TCs are valid for 1 year from harvest, and only the original PDF version is accepted (scanned copies are invalid).
Transport Distance: In principle, farms should deliver cotton no more than 500 km to the gin. This distance limit can be overridden only by stricter local regulations or by formal exception requests.
Cross-Border Shipments: If raw cotton crosses national or state borders, certification bodies must perform extra due diligence on transport documents and proofs of shipment.
Ownership & Authentication:
If a gin owns or is affiliated with a farm/farm group, the farm must also be registered in the GFR. All financial and transportation documents (e.g. payment receipts, waybills) must be retained and verified for legitimacy.
For farms certified to multiple organic standards (e.g. USDA NOP, APEDA NPOP), all relevant Scope Certificates (SCs) must be uploaded to the GFR and provided to the gin’s CB. The CB must cross-check declared acreage and yields on these SCs against regional averages.
Risk Mitigation: In cases with higher risk (e.g. cash payments), CBs should verify transactions via certified accountants or through banking channels. Ginners’ CBs are responsible for authenticating all organic claims on the raw cotton (reviewing SCs/TCs, checking the GFR) to ensure the material truly originates from certified organic farms.
By following these procurement requirements, gins maintain the “clean chain” principle: only verified organic cotton enters the GOTS-certified process. Key buzzwords for this section include “organic cotton certification 2025”, emphasizing the timely implementation of these rules.
Traceability of GOTS Lint Cotton
Capacity Verification: Certification Bodies must verify each gin’s throughput: the input (raw cotton processed) vs. output (lint cotton) capacity. Auditors review machine capacity, working hours, and acceptable loss ratios (e.g. 5%) to ensure reported figures are realistic. This prevents overstating production of “organic” lint.
Sales Documentation: For every bale of GOTS lint cotton, CBs must examine sales and transport documents, such as tax invoices, purchase orders, lint quality reports, packing lists, and transport waybills. (Examples include e-invoices, e-way bills, consignment notes, etc.) Banks or payment proofs may also be checked for consistency.
Shipping Verification: Bills of Lading and Shipping Bills should be confirmed via the shipper or forwarder’s official websites or systems. This step helps detect false shipping claims or double-counting of shipments.
GOTS Lint Compliance: Only lint cotton that is traced correctly and complies with GOTS residue limits can be sold as certified organic. By maintaining end-to-end records, gins support traceability in organic textiles and uphold GOTS lint cotton compliance.
Bullet recap:
GOTS CBs verify gin capacities and lint output.
GOTS lint shipments require full documentation (invoices, quality reports, transport docs).
Online checks of shipping bills prevent fraud.
Farm and Farm Group Requirements
GFR Pre-registration: Every organic farm or farm group supplying cotton must pre-register on the GFR. They upload organic certificates (Scope Certificates) and supporting documents so that gins and CBs can verify origin claims.
Multiple Certifications: Farms with multiple organic certifications (e.g. NPOP, NOP) must upload all relevant SCs to the GFR. This ensures transparency if a gin buys cotton from a farm with dual certification.
Yield Verification: Gin auditors must compare a farm’s declared acreage and yield against regional benchmarks. If a farm’s projected yield exceeds the local average by over 10%, the CB will confirm accuracy with the farm’s certifier. This deters falsification of supply volumes. (Auditors may refer to public data sources for average cotton yields.)
Farm Group Control: For farm groups (collections of smallholders), internal control system records and random checks ensure the group’s cotton is genuine organic before ginning.
This section reinforces that organic farmers and farm groups play a critical role. GFR pre-registration and yield checks help prevent fraud at the source. (It also highlights terms like SC and GFR in context.)
GMO and Pesticide Testing Protocols
CB-led Sampling: The Certification Body of the gin is responsible for sampling and testing cotton. The first raw cotton bales of the season must be sampled by the CB (or its appointed sampler) for GMO testing. Subsequent sampling may be done by the gin under CB supervision.
GMO Testing: All incoming raw cotton is tested for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) before acceptance into the GOTS chain. Laboratory reports must detail bale/lot numbers, farm TC numbers, and the farm’s Scope Certificate number.
Lint Residue Testing: After ginning, lint cotton must be tested for pesticide residues. Only lint that meets GOTS residue limits qualifies as certified organic.
Sampling Frequency: Tests are done in a risk-based batch system. A GMO test must be done at least once per 1,200,000 kg (1200 metric tons) of raw cotton received. Pesticide residue tests should occur for every 420,000 kg (about 2500 bales) of lint cotton.
Lab Standards: All testing labs must be ISO/IEC 17025 accredited and participate in proficiency testing (e.g. ISO IWA 32:2019). This ensures test results are reliable.
Record Keeping: CBs must keep raw and lint samples for at least 3 years. GOTS auditors can also take random samples from the gin premises at any time (even outside scheduled audits).
Test Report Details: Reports should include sampler info, lab IDs, sample locations (gin name/address), lot/bale numbers, quantities, and unique bale IDs like Press Running Numbers.
By adhering to these testing protocols, gins guarantee that both GMO contamination and prohibited residues are rigorously monitored. Industry professionals recognize terms like GMO testing and pesticide residues as key compliance checkpoints in organic cotton processing.
Additional Risk-Based Verification
The guidelines introduce extra checks for higher-risk scenarios:
Cross-Border Shipments: When raw cotton crosses national or regional borders, CBs must intensify due diligence. This may include verifying export/import documents and transport proofs more thoroughly.
Documentation Scrutiny: In any case of doubt, CBs should scrutinize unusual documentation or large deviations in declared volumes. The square-root rule can be used for farm groups: CBs sample the square-root of total payment/weighing records for verification.
These risk-based measures ensure that global or complex supply chains remain transparent. They also reinforce the importance of traceability in organic textiles across all borders.
Implementation Timeline: 2025-26
The new Version 2.0 requirements apply starting the 2025-26 crop year. In practical terms, ginning operations must follow these rules for harvests from September 2025 onwards (depending on local harvest seasons). This timeline gives gins, CBs, and farmers a clear deadline to update their processes and systems.
Call to Action
The updated GOTS Guidelines for Certified Gins add depth to organic cotton traceability and integrity. Stakeholders should use this information to review their current practices:
Ginners: Ensure your facility is fully certified to GOTS and that all procurement and testing protocols are in place.
Farmers/Farm Groups: Confirm registration on the Global Fibre Registry and accuracy of yield declarations.
Brands & Processors: Verify that your supply chain partners (gins, CBs, farmers) understand these new requirements.