Cleaning Up the Global Cotton Supply Chain is Still a Challenge

Earlier this month, Transparentem, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to uncover and reform abuses in the global supply chain, published its report on so-called ethical cotton supply chains, and called out three major Indian cotton growers for using child labour, as well as for using non-compliant synthetic pesticides on their organic cotton program. The report is the result of an investigation started in 2022 and offers insights into the problematic environment of the cotton supply chain in India, as well as feedback from brands buying cotton from either one of the three growers in the country.

Whilst the Fashion industry has been making major inroads into sustainable and ethical sourcing, Transparentem’s founder and president, Ben Skimmer, stresses that “without real visibility over the farms supplying the cotton, any claims to be sourcing responsibly are effectively meaningless.”

Transparentem’s research in fact uncovered multiple labor abuses and concerns:

• Child labor and pesticide exposure

• Debt bondage

• Wage-violations and poverty level wages

• Abusive working conditions and health hazards

The three growers mentioned in the report are Pratibha Syntex, Maral Overseas, and Remei India, and all three deny engaging in either of the aforementioned research findings. However, the non-profits investigative work on child labor can be summarised in the following table:

For more information on Transparentem’s findings, as well as corporate feedback and engagement, click here. It is interesting to see how two brands known for their sustainability efforts were unresponsive to the non-profit’s questions into their respective cotton supply chains.