I am not surprised that Primark finds itself in this situation. As someone that works alongside textile and handicraft producers in the developing world I can safely say that there is now way a company can churn out that amount /number of garments without someone somewhere being exploited.
In order to comply or call yourself an ethical provider you have to "police" your suppliers to ensure that they subscribe to your ethical agenda. Here at Ethnic Supplies LTD we do not work with anyone we have not met and even when our producers are required to prove that the work is there own. We inspect their workshops annually to ensure that for instance child labour is not used.
Flotea owner and founder of Marvelous batiks, our Textile producers in Tanzania
Marvelous Batiks workshop in Dar-es Salam
I remember in our first year of trading we met a woman in a handicraft market in Kampala Uganda. We bought a couple of jute bags from her that we thought looked really nice and very well made. She informed us that she was a partner of a Kikuyu woman based in Nairobi Kenya.
The bags were very well made and we had a feeling our customers would love them. We sent a sample to our contact in Nairobi and asked her to help us find the kikuyu woman who apparently made these bags before we could establish a working relationship with the woman in Kampala.
It took our contact nearly 6 weeks to get to the bottom of what was going on, but it transpired that the bags were actually made in Thailand and the Kikuyu woman was merely a distributor to others such as the woman we met in Uganda. Needless to say that was the end of that and it goes to show how vigilant you have to be in order to claim that you are an ethical company!
2 comments:
Hi Ida
It's frustrating that Primark isn't as vigilant with their suppliers as what we all are.
I hope the factory in question is fined heavily for not paying their staff the minimum wage. All the focus seems to be on Primark and not on the responsibilities of the actual supplier who made these dreadful business decisions. Primark need to ensure their checks are carried out and updated and shoppers need to boycott these shops until they do.
Hi Sarah,
Yes the suppliers should take responsibility for this as they have a choice not to exploit their workers. Unfortunately for Primark because they are larger they shoulder all the blame. As you rightly say as consumers we have a role to play by shopping responsibly and one of those decisions could be to ask ourselves whether we need that many clothes or just a few good quality ones that last and always look new! Primark as far as I can tell taps into " a throw away" ideology and that is where we as consumers can play a role.
Many thanks for your in put Sarah
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