The dramatic price surges in cotton or sugar demonstrate how climate instability contributes to market risks. Prices for such commodities hit 30-year highs in 2011, as drought ravaged cotton crops in Texas, and floods and a cyclone inundated sugarcane in Australia.
These price shocks reverberate throughout the supply chains of interdependent global markets, sending costs higher for companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. and Hanesbrands Inc., which rely heavily on cotton.
Naturally Advanced Technologies Inc. (NAT), based in Vancouver, British Colombia, is committed to unlocking the potential of renewable and environmentally sustainable biomass resources from flax, hemp and other bast fibers.
NAT, through its wholly owned subsidiary CRAiLAR® Fiber Technologies Inc. and in collaboration with Canada's National Research Council and Alberta Innovates - Technologies Futures, has developed proprietary technology to process bast fibers such as flax and hemp, cellulose pulp, and the resulting by-products. CRAiLAR® technology offers a cost-effective, environmentally sustainable processing solution expected to result in products with increased performance characteristics applicable to the textile, energy, composite materials, and auto, marine and aerospace industries.
NAT is partnering with major cotton customers to demonstrate that these cheaper, more resilient fibers can better withstand climate variability and are viable replacements for cotton.