Fair trade

How fair is my T-shirt? How to find out

Can I buy a T-shirt with a clear conscience? How does Migros ensure that the people who contributed to the creation of the garment are protected and treated with respect at their workplace? Insights into the many stages on the way to the finished T-shirt.

From: Nina Huber
Date: 08.02.2024
Format: What we do

A cotton T-shirt has a long way to go before it ends up in a Swiss store. The supply chain for textile products consists of many individual parts – the various processing steps from cotton cultivation to sewing often take place at different companies, sometimes in different cities or countries. Migros T-shirts often come from India.

If a company wants to be sure that its goods are produced under the correct conditions, it must check every single stage of the entire value chain. Traceability also means that all suppliers involved are known.

How does Migros monitor the individual stages in the supply chain?

Migros' own procurement company, Migros Asia, has been entrusted with checking the quality and ensuring compliance with our social guidelines. When awarding contracts, employees ensure that only qualified suppliers are considered. In concrete terms, the due diligence in the case of a striped organic cotton T-shirt from the spring-summer 2024 collection looks like this:

Production

The T-shirt is sewn in a factory called Sreeja Hosieries Pvt. Ltd in Coimbatore, India. During annual visits, staff from independent auditing companies and, in some cases, Migros itself, check whether working hours are being observed, escape routes are clear and fire safety measures are in place.

Tailoring

The fabrics are tailored in the tailoring department at Sreeja Hosieries Pvt. Ltd at their site in Tiruppur, India. During the inspections, particular attention is paid to whether the tailoring staff are adequately protected on the machines, which are not without danger.

Laundry

The fabrics are washed at Fabtech International Hosieries Pvt. Ltd in Tiruppur. Here, it is checked whether employees are wearing the correct protective clothing when working with chemicals and whether chemical substances are disposed of in accordance with regulations.

How to identify whether your T-shirt was produced responsibly

It’s difficult for consumers to identify a fairly traded item of clothing. There are three helpful questions you can ask yourself to check:

1. Is there a certificate or reference to environmental and social programmes on the label?
The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) stands for environmentally and socially responsible production, from harvesting the raw materials to processing.

The abbreviation BCI stands for Better Cotton Initiative. This initiative aims to improve cotton cultivation worldwide, for example by promoting practices that aim to minimise the use of water and pesticides.

The organic label. This means that no chemical or synthetic fertilisers and pesticides are used in cultivation, which protects the soil and groundwater and thus the livelihood of the local people.

2. Where does the T-shirt come from?
What is the risk of human rights violations in the article’s country of origin? There are independent assessments for this, such as the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI); however, “made in” only indicates the location of the final processing stage.

3. How much does the T-shirt cost?
A cotton T-shirt for CHF 2.95? If you consider the long, multi-linked supply chain and divide the price by the number of stages, it quickly becomes clear that very little money remains for the individual production steps. In other words, the lower the purchase price, the less remains to pay the people who made the T-shirt for you. Unfortunately, the reverse is not true – very expensive T-shirts are not necessarily produced fairly.

Knitting

The yarn is processed into fabric at the Sreeja Hosieries Pvt Ltd knitting mill in Tiruppur. The main focus here is on occupational safety and checking whether employees are adequately protected from noise at the machines.

Spinning / Dyeing

Cotton becomes yarn. This takes place at the company Sri Saravana in Batlagundu, India. Processing steps right at the beginning of the supply chain are often insufficiently controlled, which increases the risk of child and forced labour. In the case of our T-shirt, these checks were carried out by two inspectorates. No violations were identified. In 2024, the preliminary stages of the textile supply chain, such as the spinning mill in India, will also be monitored by Migros staff.

The finished yarn is also dyed at the same location. This step involves checking that only additives approved by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) are used and that no allergenic or carcinogenic dyes are used. The correct handling of chemicals and their proper disposal is also checked.

Ginning / cultivation

The cotton fibres are separated from their seeds. Because the cotton usually comes from different growers and passes through several intermediaries before being processed further, it’s often difficult to determine its exact origin. In the case of our T-shirt, we know that the organic cotton comes from the Madhya Pradesh region in central India.