The Australian cotton industry has invested heavily in developing strategies to bolster its competitive position, particularly in terms of quality and best practice in on-farm management as reflected in myBMP.

One of the key trends influencing farm practices is the growing awareness by consumer that when they buy a cotton product at any stage of the supply chain, they are buying the sustainability performance of the product and process before and after them. This is resulting in a plethora of tools being used by upstream consumers to assess the credentials of their suppliers. The CRDC has stated that it aims to better understand and respond to domestic and international market and consumer requirements and to improve the flow of such information through the whole supply chain, including to consumers. This is supported by the National Research Priorities which, particularly appropriate to this research, include:

1. Identifying changes in national and international market and consumer requirements (including social and environmental concerns) regarding the integrity and safety of food and other products.

2. Providing appropriate stages of the supply chain with timely and accurate information on market demands and consumer requirements.

3. Effectively servicing the information needs of consumers.

Roth (2010) identifies a number of issues with current information collection practices and technologies for the Australian cotton industry that inhibit the ability of both cotton farmers and the industry as a whole to leverage sustainability practices or to effectively monitor the espoused 'best practices'.

A key challenge for the Australian cotton industry now is how to enhance current sustainability based information, modify current practices to support accreditation opportunities and understand possible post farm gate use of this information in order to as to sustain access to current markets and profitably access new ones.