http://www.businessinsider.com.au/a-report-says-most-australian-fashion-houses-dont-know-where-their-cotton-is-sourced-from-2013-8

[19 August 2013] - 

More than 90% of Australian fashion brands don’t know where their cotton is sourced from, according to a new report.

“About 40 per cent of companies know who the manufacturers were in the [final] stage but that dramatically drops; when you get to the cotton picking stage that [knowledge] is 7 per cent,” the report’s co-author Gershon Nimbalker told Fairfax.

It investigated 40 companies, according to Fairfax Media, that produce 128 clothing brands sold in Australia, and found 93% of brands don’t know where their cotton comes from.

Supre, Abercrombie & Fitch, Rivers, Lacoste and Specialty Fashion Group — which owns Millers and Katies — were labelled by The Australian Fashion Report as the worst for failing to boycott Uzbekistan cotton.

These brands’ manufacturing processes at the final stage were also criticised, according to Fairfax.

Uzbekistan is the world’s fourth largest cotton producer and it is known that children are used to harvest the crops which are exported.

Adidas, Cue, H&M, Inditex and fair trade clothing companies Etiko and 3Fish were rated as most transparent by the report.

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Last updated 27/08/2013 17:29:26

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