Cotton Campaign » traceability

Time to Drive Child Labour From Value Chains

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:11:53 +0000

Patricia Jurewicz, director of the Responsible Sourcing Network, a project of As You Sow, has an op-ed piece at ethicalcorp.com, Time to Drive Child Labour From Value Chains:

During the recent International Cotton and Textile Fair in Tashkent, not a single western buyer signed a contract for Uzbekistan’s cotton, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. This boycott demonstrates the strength of a pledge signed by more than 60 apparel manufacturers, brands and retailers to eliminate forced child labour in the cotton industry.

Jurewicz writes of the growing consumer demand for transparency:

Having buy-in throughout the entire global value chain, where all of the dots are connected, is essential. The time of transparency has come. Consumers and legislation are demanding it.

Consumers are demanding to know more about the goods they are purchasing and, thankfully, new technologies are being adopted to give this information to them right at the point of purchase.

US legislation is also starting to demand more transparency.

Dubai defaults…on human rights

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:25:24 +0000

It wasn’t too much of a surprise to read that the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre bonds were placed on credit watch negative recently, after being downgraded to junk status in June. Is a business model built on willful, knowing exploitation of forced child labor really sustainable in any sense?

Maybe five years ago, traders could claim ignorance about Uzbekistan’s mass child enslavement for the cotton harvest. Not anymore. Multiple actors have approached the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre with the evidence directly, at least from 2008. In July of this year the American Apparel and Footwear Association, in league with the (U.S.) National Retail Federation and two other major trade groups, wrote to the DMCC director, David Rutledge, and requested action. The DMCC, after all, is a critical actor enabling the Uzbek government to profit from it exploitive practices. And what action was taken? A big roll-out of new services at the Tashkent Cotton Fair, and more cotton purchases: the DMCC traded 20,000 tons by October and placed an order for 70,000 more! (Dr. Rutledge has since been replaced by the former head of the Dubai Gold Exchange, Malcolm Wall Morris.)

As the cotton works its way up the production chain, consumers are sending the message to retailers (and many retailers are reacting…and those that are not are being called on it). But the first-line facilitators of this outrage such as the DMCC have an obligation to act, too.

Following the trail of Uzbek cotton: taking names

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:33:55 +0000

Where does the cotton go, and how can Western end-users avoid consuming it? This is a question that needs a lot more exploration. According to a recent press release, the cotton fair in Tashkent was a great success, pushing the slave-harvested commodity out and probably into goods that stock our shops. Reportedly, contracts were signed for over 600,000 tons of this year’s crop alone, and the list of attendees was the largest ever. Clearly, not everyone is getting the message.

Fergana.ru published the list (see it reproduced below) of those attending the conference. It is an interesting document for many reasons, a few of which are highlighted here:

First, it gives manufacturers and retailers some hard data to aid the process of tracing potential Uzbek cotton in their supply chains, a process which is ongoing;
Secondly, it underlines the degree to which large Western commodities firms (Paul Reinhart, Louis Dreyfus, Cargill among others) continue to feel immune from any kind of shame in profiting from the misery and exploitation of children, four years after the International Crisis Group brought it to their direct attention, and in the face of a mountain of evidence in the intervening years. Among the newer intermediaries, the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre was well represented, too. Last year it was reported to have sold 200,000 tons of Uzbek cotton, a fairly big chunk of the harvest;
Thirdly, it sheds a tiny sliver of light on the actors who may be financing/insuring these transactions, and therefore also partaking in the wealth created by child exploitation. AIG Insurance and the Royal Bank of Scotland should explain their presence at the fair in this regard;
Lastly, it indicates the increasingly heavy presence of spinners and textile manufacturers, especially from Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who may be obtaining the cotton directly.

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October’s cotton fair in Tashkent: undercover and out of sight

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:33:53 +0000

In past years, the Uzbek government has gone to a lot of trouble to advertise their main venue for marketing their ill-gotten cotton, but this year, I’ve noticed, they’re keeping it pretty much on the down low. Which makes sense. The official news agency UzA has several cotton stories on the Uzbek language site, a couple of them on the Russian site, but none on the English or French pages. Maybe they just haven’t been translated yet.

Anyway, the fair is October 14-15 in Tashkent and I hear the Uzbeks were pretty stingy with visas to attend. Any participants, of course, would learn about where the cotton is headed…facts the Uzbek government would like (but is not able) to keep hidden.

Press on the fair is a little hard to stomach, touting the high quality of Uzbek cotton, conveniently leaving out the part about being picked by little hands. The self-delusion of the official press agency is almost sad, claiming as it does that the Cotton Fair will “lead to the future growth of [Uzbekistan's] international authority.” Maybe it could…if they would stop crushing their own future by sending children out to the cotton fields.