We are busy here in Scotland; everything is growing fast as we have so much continual light. It has become a problem persuading the chickens to go to bed at 10.30pm as it’s still light.

I have also been checking out new lines of clothes which we will introduce in the autumn, they look great and I hope that you will like them. Our local paper are going to do a feature on the website which is quite exciting.

I have found another article which I hope will be of interest to you. It is about the long journey that cotton travels before it reaches our wardrobes and I think provides food for thought. From cultivated raw cotton through processing and finishing of the fibre and thence to clothing manufacturers, retailers and eventually to our homes.

Over many years the international textile trade has been strictly regulated by complex systems of import restrictions. Industrial nations tried to protect their industry from cheap imports. In January 2005 however within the framework of negotiations on the liberalization of world trade the regulation ended. (The Multi-Fibre Agreement).

During the existence of the textile agreement the global distribution of textile production had developed in such a way that for many poor countries in the south it has become an important export industry. For example while China was allowed a low quota, other countries such as Bangladesh profited from the quota regulation. Now that this has ended it is feared that developing countries will be forced out of the competition. Their main rival is China: low wages, high flexibility and productivity as well as the capability to mass produce are China’s advantages and it is forecasted that China’s share of global textile trading could increase rapidly from 20% to 50%

Apart from the challenges presented by the global textile trade the textile production chain from the raw product to the retail trade remains very complex. It is virtually impossible to retrace a textile to its place of origin as supply structures in the textile and clothing industry are kept secret. In principle it is possible to retrace each production step. At each level of the production chain power is divided among the various players and specific problems can be pinpointed. Good solutions have been found to some problems; however these solutions have not been put into practice widely enough or have not been imitated. Cotton plays a major role in the clothing and textile trade as it is used in large proportion of production.

Cotton cultivation takes place in many developing countries. Industrial countries such as the U.S.A. are also involved. Their subsidies for growers and/or export subsidies put pressure on the world market price and affect Southern countries. Apart from low world market prices the enormous use of pesticides in cultivation has drastic effects on the health of farmers and field workers and the environment. Cotton monoculture supplants food production. Problems of rivalry for the use of the land, health and environmental damage and financial dependency can be counteracted by the growing of organic cotton.

Organic cotton achieves a higher market price and health and environmental damage is stopped and financial losses diminished. Crop rotation ensures that foodstuffs are also produced and replaces cotton monoculture.

Following cultivation and harvest the cotton is separated. Seed kernels and impurities are removed leaving the fibre hairs. This is spun into yarn in a spinning mill. This process of removal of impurities normally takes place in the area the cotton is grown in but from spinning onward can take place anywhere in the world. The work involved in textile finishing is in almost every case work associated with catastrophic working conditions mainly affecting workers health. Finishing textiles includes washing, bleaching, dying, printing and processing. This work is often carried out in the Southern countries as there wages are lower and environmental regulations hardly play a role. In this way costs are minimized to the detriment of workers health and the environment. Clothes production also occurs in places where wages are very low. Clothing textiles are made most of the time in so called free production zones such as Bangladesh or El Salvador. Often in very poor working conditions for the workers who are mainly women. This means unpaid overtime, workings without breaks no unions and loss of a job should a woman become pregnant.

It has been demonstrated that things can be done differently with a standardized monitoring system for checking for working conditions making it easier to understand how textiles can be produced in a socially acceptable way.  There are now a number of successful projects running under Fair Trade conditions.

PAN- Germany Supplied information contained in this article.