A statement released by H&M Group on its website on March 24 attracted widespread attention.
This statement reads: H&M Group is deeply concerned about reports from civil society organizations and media reports, including forced labor of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. and allegations of religious discrimination. In the statement, H&M Group stated that we do not cooperate with any clothing manufacturing factories located in Xinjiang, nor do we purchase products/raw materials from the region. Xinjiang is China’s largest cotton growing region, and so far, our suppliers source cotton from farms in the region associated with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), the statement said. As it becomes increasingly difficult to conduct credible due diligence in the region, BCI has decided to suspend the issuance of BCI cotton licenses in Xinjiang. This means the cotton we need for our products will no longer be sourced from there.
As soon as the news came out, netizens were collectively angry. Many people went to H&M China’s official WeChat account to leave messages to express their condemnation. Brand spokesperson Huang Xuan also announced that he would stop cooperating with H&M. Searches for relevant products on JD.com, Taobao and other shopping platforms no longer show up, and almost all e-commerce platforms have begun to remove H&M products from their shelves. The coordinated actions demonstrate the strong public opinion: While spreading slander and boycotting Xinjiang products, you also want to make a lot of money from the Chinese people? Delusion!
Of course there are many BCI members, international Many brand clothing companies in the world are members of this organization, and there are more than one clothing companies boycotting cotton from Xinjiang, China. Gone are the days when they still wanted to make money from the Chinese while framed China. However, these brand clothing companies cooperate more with domestic fabric manufacturers. Textile companies with large trade volumes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have more or less European and American customers, among which H&M’s suppliers are also widely distributed. After some foreign clothing brands represented by H&M caused public outrage, what impact will their clothing suppliers face?
The impact started last year
H&M issued a statement recently, mainly because it has joined BCI’s “Better Cotton Plan”, and BCI issued an announcement as early as October last year. China’s Xinjiang region was affected by the so-called Human rights issues, as of October 2020, BCI decided to immediately cease all field activities in the region, including capacity building and data monitoring and reporting. Since then, some overseas brands, together with H&M, have begun boycotting Xinjiang cotton.
Cotton from Xinjiang. Our company developed a batch of fabrics at that time, which were cotton-containing fabrics, but in the end we didn’t place orders for them all,” said a person in charge of a foreign trade company. “Currently, foreign trade brand customers will still use products containing a small amount of cotton, but when purchasing in large quantities, they ask not to use Xinjiang cotton. If the fabric contains cotton, we need a certificate to prove that the cotton does not come from Xinjiang.”
Of course, the impact now is not just on cotton. Boycotting these arrogant clothing brands will affect all fabric procurement of these brands, and even It also has a certain impact on other European and American brands.
The foreign trade market may be affected
Most of the orders currently being made in the textile market They are all clothing brands from Europe and the United States. Although many domestic fabrics are exported to Southeast Asia, such fabrics are eventually made into clothing and exported to Europe and the United States. In the process of boycotting H&M for slandering Xinjiang cotton, other European and American clothing brands may be involved. It may eventually have an impact on the entire foreign trade of clothing and textiles.
“Our fabrics are mainly used for export. Although we have not cooperated with H&M, we have many European customers. The impact is not yet visible, but this is not just Their company may affect all European customers in the long run.” said a person in charge of a textile trading company in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. “The impact of foreign trade is certain. The epidemic in Europe is not over yet. Foreign trade is not good to begin with. It may be more difficult in the future, and it may even be more difficult than last year.”
Due to the large volume of foreign trade orders and good payment methods, textile companies in the market have been vigorously exploring the foreign trade market in recent years. However, this year, due to the ongoing epidemic in Europe and the United States, some European countries and regions are still under lockdown. In addition, the prices of raw materials and fabrics will rise sharply after the new year, which will hit foreign trade orders to a certain extent. Recently, some European clothing brands have encountered boycotts, which may make the foreign trade market even more tense.
But our textile people don’t need to worry too much, the terminal The demand for clothing is still there, they just changed a clothing brand. There are still many famous international clothing companies that have been firmly supporting our Xinjiang cotton. These companies will get more market opportunities and more terminal orders in the future. , and they are also more willing to cooperate with our domestic fabric suppliers. In the end, the orders we lost in the short term will come back.
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