Workshop On Traceability In Pakistan's Cotton Supply Chain Held

All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and WWF-Pakistan in collaboration with Elevate organization arranged 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

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Mar, 2023 ):All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and WWF-Pakistan in collaboration with Elevate organization arranged 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 YESS and assessment of supply chain actor's due diligence efforts to identify and address risks of forced labour in cotton production.

APTMA Vice Chairman Asad Shafi briefed the WWF and Elevate teams about the APTMA as a premier organisation of the textile industry in Pakistan.

He said multiple local brands had established retail chains, asserting that global and indigenous demand for clothing had also increased many times, which required compliances not only for foreign buyers but also for 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 hoped that 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.

WWF-Pakistan and Elevate representatives including Arjmand Qayyum Amjad and consultant Elizabeth Muller, Mr. Jeffery Wheeler, Muhammad Abdullah and Usman Javed spoke on the sustainability concepts and explained that the Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN) had established the YESS initiative to cultivate transparent and accountable supply chains and collaborative corporate engagement in the cotton sector.

They said YESS had developed standards and trainings for 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 was 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 a monitoring aspect of the YESS standards.

During a question-answer session at the end, the participants raised relevant queries to improve their understanding on the subject.

Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) Chairman Waheed Arshad was also present.