Speech of Muzafar Razakov

Speaker: It’s an interesting model that exists in Uzbekistan — the cluster system and the fact that you oversee everything from the farm all the way to the finished product. Building on what you mentioned in your introduction, how does certification align with your broader sustainability strategy and long-term business goals within Global Textile — within your organization?

Muzafar Razakov: Thank you, Tom. Thank you for the question.

We come from a country that has only recently begun a complete economic transformation. Agriculture makes up around 25–30% of our GDP, and cotton represents nearly 90% of that. So, its impact on the entire country is massive.

After the change in national leadership, the priority was to break away from outdated practices and introduce new rules, transforming the entire agricultural sector. One of the first steps was shifting from state-owned, centrally controlled agriculture to a private sector–driven model.

We, as Global Textile, are essentially a product of these reforms. We started as just a spinning operation, but thanks to the new policies, we gained the opportunity to expand — to lease land directly from the state and grow our own cotton. That allowed us to scale up and reach new levels of development.

Certification became one of the key tools in this transformation — not just for compliance or branding, but as a driver of structural and cultural change on a national level. It's more than a checkbox; it has had a macro-level effect on the country’s mindset and systems.

Thanks to these reforms, the country has made significant progress in a short period of time. For example, child labor — which, unfortunately, existed in Uzbekistan for over 100 years — has been fully eliminated. Forced labor, where government bodies used to mobilize people for harvesting, was deeply entrenched, but strong political will made it possible to end this practice.

The next step was certification. Just a few weeks ago, our Head of State spoke at a major industrial development conference in Tashkent. He emphasized that all cotton fields in Uzbekistan must go through BCI certification, among others.

So, I want to reiterate certification plays a massive role — not just for our company, but for the whole country. It supports transformation, strengthens institutions, and most importantly, shifts the mindset of the people.

At Global Textile, we’ve learned a great deal from preparing for and undergoing certification. Many improvements were made with the help of experts, NGOs, and partners — and we’ve embedded these changes into our internal systems.

If more companies in Uzbekistan follow this path, the entire landscape of our industry will evolve — leading us toward a better future, and, quite literally, better white cotton.

Speaker: That's great. And we saw the big news — as you mentioned — about the recognition from the Head of State regarding the importance of certification and its role in your country. So, going back a bit — you've already spoken a lot about the benefits — but do you feel that certification has brought more consistency to how you approach things? Has it introduced new systems or structures within your organization?

Muzafar Razakov: Absolutely, absolutely. As I mentioned, we’re just getting started — but we’ve already made a firm decision to do things the right way, and in the right direction.

When we began preparing for BCI certification, we realized how much it brought everything under one roof. It allowed us to align all our processes — from cotton growing and agronomy, to ginning, spinning, knitting, dyeing, and garment production. Every department came together under one system, creating a strong sense of internal discipline, transparency, and shared understanding.

Most importantly, this process shaped our corporate culture. We understood that we have to be clean and responsible in every step — to produce truly sustainable, high-quality textile products from our white cotton.

So yes, certification had a huge impact on us. It was transformative — like a foundation for a newborn company. It helped us grow the right way, from the very beginning.

We would like to express our special thanks to the Uzbekistan office of Better Cotton. Despite limited resources, the local team provides highly professional support to producers and actively contributes to the promotion of international standards within the industry.

We believe that further strengthening their capacity is essential, as their work plays a significant role in advancing sustainable practices in the country’s textile sector.

Speaker: Excellent — that’s truly great to hear. Thank you for sharing those insights.