Cotton PDF

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Discussion questions on the cotton supply chain and modern slavery...

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Supply Chain Tutorial – K1630086 – 1615381 – 7 March 2019

1. Who are the main actors in the cotton supply chain and what stages are involved in transforming cotton from an agricultural crop to a finished product for consumers?

The cotton is first harvested, either by use of a machine or by hand (in Uzbekistan it unfortunately still is the latter), then sold to international commodities-trading companies, who then go on to sell it to processors, manufacturers, stitchers, and only after this step is it transported to the retailer.

2. Describe the approach adopted by Western brands to deal with human rights violations in the Uzbek cotton supply chain.

In the beginning everybody took the “innocent” approach whereby businesses stated they have no way of knowing the origins of the cotton they use due to the complexity of the supply chain. This certainly would not qualify as a “proactive” approach (Carrol, 2016) Triggered by an Estonian textile producer and a Scandinavian clothing design company, numerous clothing brands joined the boycott (2007), yet it was not until 2011 when a cotton pledge was laid out in which over 150 companies promised they would not knowingly include the use of Uzbek cotton in their products and generally their supply chain. As a result, exports fell and the Uzbek government seemingly made efforts to minimise/reduce child labour, however, despite some progress, it looks like either the Uzbek government misunderstood the message or found a loophole in it, as they now started using forced adult labour to substitute for the children, who were not forcibly working on the farms anymore.

Upon expansion of the pledge to include forced adult labour, some levels of monitoring on the farms were instated, but this does not constitute significant progress, especially because the boycotters did not seek support from countries outside of the Western territory, an opportunity then exploited by the Uzbeks, who then pushed for higher exports to countries with lesser or non-existing concerns regarding cotton sourcing.

3. To what extent has this approach been successful so far? In your opinion, what accounts for this success or failure?

There has been significant progress over the past decade, however it is far from the goal, especially because of the character of the country of Uzbekistan, which boasts limited media freedoms, meagre democracy, extraordinary corruption and a notorious lack of interest in human rights. Without the country’s change of mentality, achieving a 100% ‘clean’ supply chain will pretty much be impossible, as the government will give it their all to cover the nearly criminal work conditions emulating slavery (Crane, 2013). Without said change in mentality, all that Western countries can do is to attempt collaboration with all other countries to boycott Uzbek cotton further to a point, where there is full monitoring and nationwide humane conditions are in place. A further complication is the fact that ‘bad’ cotton can sneak into the supply chain at other points, if other countries will keep using unethically sourced cotton. Some of what barely can be called a ‘success’ can be attributed to the increase in awareness of business ethics and interest in CSR overall in the Western world (Carson, 2012), which is why so many known companies have decided to join the pledge, further pressuring the Uzbek government.

Bibliography

Carroll, A. (2016). Carroll’s pyramid of CSR: taking another look. International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, 1(1). Carson, J. (2012). Corporate Social Responsibility -- Bandwagon or Built-in?. [online] HuffPost. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-carson/corporate-socialresponsi_2_b_1385192.html [Accessed 9 Mar. 2019]. Crane, A. (2013). Modern Slavery As A Management Practice: Exploring the Conditions and Capabilities for Human Exploitation. Academy of Management Review, 38(1), pp.49-69....