The Change We Are Building.
eko·kotton is an early-stage organisation with a long-horizon vision: to make East African cotton the most trusted, traceable, and fairly traded natural fibre on the global market. Here is where we are now and where we are going.
The Sector Opportunity
Until eko·kotton's own programme data is available, the following sector benchmarks frame the scale of the opportunity:
The EAC region has an annual cotton export potential of 400,000 metric tonnes, currently only 8% is being realised
2.5 million people are employed across the East African cotton value chain
In comparable programmes (e.g. Cotton On Africa Cotton Programme, Kenya), farmer incomes previously below USD 1/day have grown significantly within 3 to 5 years
74% of farmers in the region's sustainable cotton programmes are women
Certified and premium cotton commands 20–30% above commodity pricing
Cotton On's Africa Cotton Programme supported over 15,000 farmers and 90,000 community beneficiaries within 7 years of launch
Our Commitments
As an early-stage organisation, we are committed to the following from day one:
Transparency: We will publish annual impact reports with independently verified data
Farmer primacy: Programme design is driven by farmer needs, not funder requirements
Gender equity: We will maintain at least 50% women participation across all programme activities
No greenwashing: We will only make certification claims that are backed by documented evidence
Open data: Sector-level data we collect will be shared publicly to strengthen the broader East Africa cotton ecosystem
Download our Impact Overview (PDF)
A summary of our model, theory of change, and sector opportunity suitable for due diligence and funding conversations.
