OCC and Spoerry 1866 have signed an agreement to consistently market the thread derived from the exclusive organic and regenerative color cotton OCCRegenerative® Brazil. This agreement will not only provide stability to the social project we carry out with Brazilian agricultural communities responsible for cultivating this cotton but also allow for a gradual increase in the number of farmers involved in this project.

By Santi Mallorquí, CEO of Organic Cotton Colours. January 2015 marked the first year we obtained cotton fiber from our own network of farmers in sufficient quantities to export and spin in Barcelona. It was a complex process as we had groups of farmers spread across 3 states: Piauí, Paraíba, and Pernambuco, with different communities within each state and a total of 150 farmers collectively. Effective transport planning was crucial to optimize costs, although at that moment, our priority was to manage it within just twelve days—the time I would spend in Brazil. I wanted to return with the certainty that everything had been resolved correctly. The cotton was stored in a warehouse with its large access door blocked, and there was no physical way to remove the bales without tearing down a wall. This was just the beginning of a series of challenges we had to overcome with great enthusiasm. The bales weighed 70 kg and were challenging to handle. Their volume did not allow for a 60-meter journey on foot to the truck. We had to borrow a loading cart from a supermarket to move the bales with some dignity and hire a group of young people to handle the material and load it onto the transport that would take it to the port, where it could be handled with proper forklifts. The next challenge was to issue all the invoices correctly to hire both truck transport and container loading and dispatch within the established deadlines from the Port of Suape, Pernambuco. We spent four days locked in an office. Every two hours, a new obstacle emerged, altering our planned agenda—moments of nervousness and desperation. In the following photo, you’ll see the legal path of the invoices that must be issued for a proper export. The necessary legal requirements are not easy to obtain, requiring the hiring of a specialized company to create a plan (as shown in the photo) and thus avoid surprises like the ones we encountered the first time. I especially remember Gilceu, an independent truck driver with his truck hired by the transport company to take the last material to the port cooperative. At seven in the evening, when we managed to have the truck well-loaded, the transport company canceled its contract by phone. We heard Gilceu shout furiously. He explained what was happening, and reluctantly, we had to empty the entire load and hire another company. Although the truck belonged to a family member, we needed a transport company to hire it for the service. Once again, with much faith and pulling some

By Santi Mallorquí, CEO of Organic Cotton Colours. In the previous chapter, I told you how we ended up losing the 2013 crop season. The reason was that the government NGO assisting the farmers stopped receiving funds from the state, communication was cut off, and no one knew how to redirect the situation. There, I learned that we had to act without intermediaries and create our own network of farmers committed to our project. The next trip to Brazil was in August 2014. We traveled a good part of the northeast, visiting previously selected families; I had the feeling that “the third time was the charm.” Diógenes Fernández was already part of the OCC team and turned out to be the person we needed; he knew the terrain and was well-received among the farmers and Embrapa. Embrapa is a federal agency that supplies seeds and provides technical assistance to farmers. Without them and without the invaluable almost personal assistance of Fabio Aquino, head of the organic cotton department, our good intentions would have been in vain. Obtaining the seeds is already a delicate process because they may be contaminated with genetically modified species. This happens because many types of seeds circulate, and not all farmers are aware of the importance of knowing their origin, due to pollination from adjacent fields. It is also common for contamination to occur in the ginning process if it has been carried out in a company that combines conventional and organic cotton. It was crucial to start on the right foot and ensure good seeds. Normally, they are marketed lint-free, meaning without fuzz, considered cleaner and with less risk of transporting insects. However, aggressive chemical agents are used to remove the fuzz around the seed. So, obtaining enough lint-free seeds in our 3 colors was quite a challenge. Technical assistance posed another significant challenge, given the enormous distances that had to be traveled on dirt roads to meet a group of families at their residence. In the best cases, 6 to 10 families are grouped into “settlements,” which are like small groups of houses surrounded by crops. Each settlement is part of a regional cooperative. They receive training and follow-up for the plantations at home, so to speak. Among families, they help each other in preparing the fields and in the manual harvesting, which can take a month, as only the plumage in optimal ripening conditions is collected. On that trip, we visited cooperatives in 4 states: Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, and Pernambuco. We felt the danger of traveling the interstate roads in