Author: Renato Palmi
5 April 2010, South Africa
Recently, I led a group of fashion design students from Linea Academy on a field research exercise to investigate apparel labelling compliance, quality of clothing and comparative pricing. The results are interesting, and indicate a need for follow-up by both the South African apparel and textile industry sectors and the Department of Trade and Industry.
Apparel Label Regulations
The South African Government issued a notice announcing that as from the 15th April 2008, labelling of all goods to clarify “Country of Origin” in terms of the Merchandise Act 17 of 1941 would be enforced.
To ensure compliance with these regulations, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the South African Revenue Services (SARS) warned that they would randomly detain consignments of goods for checking, and would assign officials to carry out surprise inspections at retail outlets. If apparel was found not to meet the label regulations, companies and individuals (including independent fashion designers) could be liable to a R5 000 fine per item, or face imprisonment for three years, or both.
The regulations state that all items of merchandise falling under the Act are required be bear a label indicating the country of origin and whether imported textiles were used to make them, the fibre content and care instructions. An extension of the Act prohibits retailers from claiming that merchandise is "Made in South Africa" purely on the basis of the merchandise having undergone any reconstruction.
Field Findings
We inspected a range of garments at the popular Young Designers Emporium (YDE) boutique at Durban’s Pavilion shopping mall. YDE, owned by national retail chain Truworths, was created to provide retail space for local designers.
Despite the YDE website’s claim that the brand is renowned for its window campaigns, their visual displays offered no marketing material promoting local fashion design; there was nothing to encourage consumers to support locally designed and made-in-South Africa apparel. One would have hoped for – at the very least – designers’ bio-sketches to be showcased in the store; this feature is widely accepted nowadays as fundamental to buy-local campaigning, and critical for bridging and bonding the market with both the individual designer and the industry sector as a whole.
All the YDE garments we examined bore a "Made in South Africa" label; however, many garments had no labelling identifying the fabric content or whether the textiles used were local or imported.
As one student noted: "The brands I looked at had swing-tags with 'Made in' labelling, but none showed the fabric content or the origin of the textiles used." We observed that, of those garments that did identify the source of the textiles, all were imported.
The students found that several privately owned boutiques situated in the same mall are violating the labelling regulations.
Sifting through the racks of garments in one shop, a student found that "there were no care labels, and on some clothing, no labels at all. If there was a label, it read either ‘Made in China’ or ‘Made in Thailand’. At another private boutique, a student noted that "the clothing had no labels at all, and some garments didn't even have a price tag."
One student, who examined clothing at a boutique owned by an apparel group at the Gateway Shopping mall in Durban, said the only disappointment was finding an item labelled "Designed in South Africa – Made in Hong Kong." Tabulating her data on 10 garments from three retail chains, another student found that six items were made in South Africa, five of which had been made with imported fabric.
Make everything here!
We should all be disturbed that retailers are not bothering to comply with the labelling regulations. It could be that this dismissal arises from an attitude expressed by one respondent in a 2008 research enquiry I conducted on this issue: "Why bother? Government will do nothing about enforcing these new rules."
According to the DTI, the implementation of the label regulations was not intended to make life difficult for the designers or the apparel sector in general, but to regulate illegal imports and promote the purchase of clothing that is designed and made in South Africa.
It is imperative that both the Department of Trade and Industry and the textile and apparel industry sector, in collaboration with the South African Clothing and Textiles Workers' Union, act upon evidence of this nature. If these findings are ignored and little attempt is made to enforce the regulations, the considerable money and time spent on research, debates, workshops and interaction between government and industry, as well as the formulation of new industry policy, become farcical. Both government and industry should collaborate to ensure compliance at the retail juncture of the apparel and textile value-chain. If not, the work done to ensure constructive development and sustainability at the level of manufacturing will be, literally and figuratively, un-stitched.
In developing countries, the textile sector is recognised as an important platform for economic development and job creation. The South African textile industry continues be under stress, with textile companies either collapsing or retrenching staff, and this undermines the South African government's drive for job creation.
The prevalent finding from this small, localised field exercise was that retailers are selling apparel that is "Made in South Africa from imported fabrics". If local textile manufacturers wish to recapture the domestic market, this poses a serious question for the Textile Federation.
7 comments:
Article title: SA Retailers still violating apparel label regulations
Title:
Comment: I manage a small business making fashion accessories, so we are on the edge of the fashion industry (ie not mainstream fashion designers). So ps take my comments within that context
* I think that all crafters (and designers) should be labelling everything “made in SA”
* And it is important that those using fabric, also state where the fabric comes from
* As the textile industry in SA has more or less ceased operating, and it is difficult to source fabric made in SA, I cannot see what is wrong with a label which says ‘Made in SA from imported fabric’. This still indicates that we are creating work for South Africans – which is what we all need to do, to reduce unemployment, create happier neighbours and a happier crime-free SA. Charity starts at home!
* And I do not agree that buyers could not care where anything comes from – there is an increasingly conscious consumer worldwide (and in more affluent countries especially) and believe it or not, in SA! Middle class buyers are making buying decisions based on where it is made – more and more people want food made in SA, clothes made in SA, everything made in SA – they know that importing means the use of fossil fuels and pollution. (Granted, as most fabric available in SA is not made in SA, this is difficult to meet in that respect, but one can choose 'made in SA'). They are also conscious of the fact that everyone in SA needs to eat. I know that this does not apply to all consumers – but it applies to many.
* And I would also like to state that if makers of fashion accessories and clothing do not work at it to market the ‘MADE IN SA’ brand, they are not looking after all SA businesses, or their own. We all need to educate the buying public. Stop saying the government won’t police this law – use it as a marketing tool! Producers need to take their lives, and their businesses, into their own hands. And take responsibility for growing ‘Proudly South African’ – even if it is only partly, it still creates work and puts food on the table!
* So - we all need to work at making consumers more conscious of the implications of their buying decisions
Sue Kingma
NUNO
Article title: SA Retailers still violating apparel label regulations
Title:
Comment: Intresting discussion, but, the main point is the the WTO and of course countries like the EU/States etc. have made it law that all labels should display country of origin. This is especially true of food - where the food is grown, how it is harvested...dates et al.
The world is a shrinking place, and most nations are aware of slave labour, child labour, human rights abuses that is taking place right at this very moment. The Label of origin, was intended to show the "aware" consumer exactly where their products come from, and if international norms are adhered to.
Hi Renato
A quick and not complete answer to your textile question ;
THE QUESTION: WHY DESIGNERS USING IMPORTED TEXTILES:
Cannot compete with Asia;
1 Hidden and visible subsidies by Asian governments (not given by SA govt.)
2 Local mills – not producing/not able to produce wanted fashion fabrics
3 Small run orders – textile mills need long runs to become efficient and make money
- Local mills not able to make profit
4 Large local retailers not really supporting (or able) to support local mills
5 Many of the local mills not able to compete technologically
- New equipment and techniques
- Not keeping up with technical ‘know how’ – or not able to keep up as too little investment in people with the required skills
5 Over the past 5 years – major closures of textile mills in South Africa
Many other institutionalized constraints to the value chain (raw fibre to retailer)
Hope this helps
Kind regards - Stuart
Hi Renato,
I think your initiative is excellent, but I have a number of concerns which I need to address.
YDE , although owned by Truworths, is the outlet for small and emerging/aspiring designers, whose main aim is to try and survive and then proper. They source their fabrics from a number of importers and wholesalers, who do not give them the required information, as sometimes the fabrics they are selling are part of a ‘job lot’ from an overseas exporter.
So in effect, you are targeting what are budding entrepreneurs who are trying to make a difference in South Africa.
You would have had much more impact and relevance to the current state of the industry if you had targeted the large importers eg.
a) Mr Price
b) Pick ‘n Pay
c) Edgars
d) Chinese Wholesalers and China Cities.
I am not saying that the major retailers are not complying, but I would be very surprised if all their merchandise was fully compliant with all the regulations – but that is a much better project for your students than only targeting those that will become their colleagues in the industry when they have graduated from their courses.
Kind regards - Stuart
Article title: SA Retailers still violating apparel label regulations
Title:
Comment: As said before this is an intresting discussion.
For many years I have advocated that the WC set up an EPZ zone - as Mauritius has - ie. no duties on ALL fabric goods needed to make garments/fabrics/thread etc for export. The manufactured goods are then EXPORTED duty free to their desitnation - that is why Mauritius is such a success story. With a popoulation of just over 1 million people - hardly anyone is unemployed - does that not say something?
As I have advocated with our respective Minister's of Trade and Industries - Rob Davis - (and the previous Minister) - we need institution that provides critical FREE information to the industry as a whole.
South Africa is pretty jacked up with a load of passionate people...our business men are the smartest and most astute in the world. As a country we have talented smart people everywhere - BUT - not smart enough to set up structures to pass on knowledge, and work together. It appears as if SA is fragmented - our DTI/IDC have money to spend - but only on fanciful structures that are meaningless, the money never gets to service the MASS of people in the industry - it is all geared to a few, who have a LOT - and want more from the system. As a SMME - where do you go to?
Ordinary people need access to information - has anyone ever tried to get hold of these people in these government institutions? You will be lucky if you ever get them on a phone or to return emails....
SA has not yet developed a knowledge information society.
That has to change if we wish to grow a stronger, healthier society....
As a country we need a STRONG Civil institutions:
1. An SA RETAIL COUNCIL - that serves both civil society and business - (I discussed this many years ago with Raymond Ackerman and he was 100 percent behind the concept - I attempted to enrole the rest of the Retailers - and they were 100 percent against the idea - WHY - because they felt that by co-operation on common issues they were diluting their competetive edge - how sad!!)Recently a couple of the FAshion retailers have involved one person whom they retain - but that is not good enough - we need a proper institution to represent ALL RETAILERS.
2. A FASHION RETAIL ACADEMY - an e-learning enviornment whereby every person working in retail - from a Sales person right through to our buyers - have access to affordable SETA Level courses - for say R400-00 per COURSE LEVEL - There is such a product available - and a dedicated team of 6 specalists are ready to role out - RESULT They are unable to raise the capital as the RETAILERs once again give the same lame answers...and of course no one knows if the W R Seta will still exist in the next couple of years -
3.A NATIONAL MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION - as many of the powerful nations world wide have - RESULT - everyone is too busy or unable to appoint someone from their busineses to represent them, and they do not wish to pay fees to join such an associaton.
I am still passionate to set up all the above instutions - happy to pass on knowledge - even more happy to see results -
As a country we need to build up a knowledge base for manufacturers - We need dedicated passionate people who are service eccentric to serve in these instutions and be accountable - and it need to be in a central accessable location..
Input and dialogue is intresting and I would welcome this from anyone -
We still are part of the world community and as such we need to take the best -from the rest of the world and adapt it for our country...this includes compliance, responsibility and above all committment to be the best in what ever we do.
Article title: SA Retailers still violating apparel label regulations
Title:
Comment: Well doesn't this open a can of worms. I agree that garments should be marked "made in South Africa" at the very least to market South African made designers and clothing. The problem with the fabric is that most (not all suppliers) do not supply the fabric content. Then there is the fact that most of us use imported fabric and there are various reasons for this. Locally produced fabric is usually very expensive comparitively which makes us as South African designers uncompetative. They don't do small runs, which lets face it most of us would love to design our own or have our own exclusive colours for our fabric. But the South African textile manufacturers haven't come to the party, and I'm guessing alot of us would support local if we could buy in smaller quantities and at competitive prices. And even if they did there is the matter of range of types of fabric which we couldn't get from the South African Manufacturers. So we're left buying imported fabric through no fault of our own, and then we get blamed for not supporting local.
Why can't we follow the lead of Mauritius which as a tiny Island is manufacturing wonderful textiles from beginning to end at an affordable rate and exporting all over the world. And geographically are not that much further than us!
Nicole Rasmussen
Nucleus
Comment: What drives me crazy is how many locally qualified textile deisgners I have met purley by chance in social circumstances, all of whom have said they needed to choose an alternative career path. It just goes to show that there are willing candidates who are prepared to put in blood and sweat only to be snuffed out by the lack of industry.
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