FACTORY GIRLS
Yesterday we visited a potential new supplier/ factory here in Kathmandu. They make BEAUTIFUL superlight shawls in cashmere, silk & linen. The best thing with their cashmere products is that they are dyed with natural vegetable dyes! Big Eco Plus Point (:
Something you would be interested in for SS2014?
It only works 15 women at this factory nowadays as they've been forced to downsize their production unit due political instability within Nepal and demands from the western market to keep prizes down while still expecting the same quality or even better quality then before.
When we visit potential suppliers we always have a list of questions to the management as f.ex the workers working conditions; work hours, salary, overtime payments etc.
The manager at this particular factory told us that they pay the women only 6200 Nepali rupies a month ( about75 US$ ) which is a bit more then nepali minimum wage, but still at the lowest end of the estimated minimum living wage.
Knowing this we have to ask ourselves:
If we place and order at this factory and start a collaboration that can bring fruits for both parties in the future?
Can we bring steady business to this unit so the workers salaries can have a steady increase in the future?
Numbers from Norway shows that the price level for clothes is pretty much the same today as in the late 1980's.
No wonder that is still possible when some workers in the manufacturing countries earn next to nothing....Let's do something about it together?
F A I R T R A D E
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C O N S C I O U S S H O P P I N G
IS
T H E F U T U R E
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