LAHORE MIRROR — All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and WWF-Pakistan in collaboration with ELEVATE organisation organized a daylong workshop on traceability in Pakistan’s cotton supply chain with the introduction of Yarn Ethically & Sustainably Sourced (YESS) Standard for technical managers of spinning mills.
The objective of the workshop was to educate textile players on the Yarn Ethically & Sustainably Sourced (YESS) and assessment of supply chain actor’s due diligence efforts to identify and address risks of forced labour in cotton production.
Vice Chairman APTMA Mr. Asad Shafi welcomed the WWF and ELEVATE teams on the occasion and briefed them about the APTMA as a premier organisation of the textile industry in Pakistan. He said multiple local brands have established with retail chains. Pakistan is fifth largest populated country. In the world and indigenous demand for clothing has also increased many times within the country, which requires compliances not only for foreign buyers but also domestic consumers.
Asad Shafi emphasized on the need of joint action in collaboration with organizations like WWF-Pakistan and Elevate to improve the condition in textile supply chain in Pakistan.
He expressed the hope that the learning of latest techniques and compliances relate to elimination of forced labour in cotton supply chain would prove helpful to improve working environment of textile mills in Pakistan.
Chairman Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) Mr. Waheed Arshad was also present on the occasion.
WWF-Pakistan and Elevate representative including Mr. Arjmand Qayyum Amjad and consultant Elizabeth Muller, Mr. Jeffery Wheeler, Mr. Muhammad Abdullah and Mr. Usman Javed spoke on the sustainability concepts and explained that the Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN) has established the YESS initiative to cultivate transparent and accountable supply chains and collaborative corporate engagement in the cotton sector.
They said YESS has developed standards and trainings for and assessments of supply chain actors’ due diligence efforts to identify and address risks of forced labour in cotton sector. Applying the YESS Standard at spinning mills is necessary to validate the origin of all cotton lint and identify cotton lint from high-risk sources, they added.
They also explained the concepts like policy and management expectations, due diligence and cotton origin validation, material management, risk identification, reporting an monitoring aspects of the YESS standards. it was followed by a question answer session where the participants raised relevant queries to sharp their understanding on the subject.
