An investigation by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) has identified in India 20,000 metric tons of cotton that were incorrectly certified as organic. The fraud was operated through false raw cotton transaction certificates that used fake QR codes, which led to a cloned website of the APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority). APEDA is the Indian agency that certifies organic raw cotton for export. GOTS has now asked its approved certification bodies to cancel all upstream transaction certificates based on these wrongly issued documents.

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