Every year in June, when Egyptian jasmine farmers harvest the harvest, after the harvest period from June to October, fresh jasmine from Africa is sent to processing plants to be refined into essential oils, which are then used by manufacturers and brands as a valuable natural ingredient to be added to expensive perfume products.
But before the jasmine harvest in 2024, global fragrance groups such as L'Oreal, Estee Lauder and Givaudan were caught in a storm of "human rights issues" because of a documentary that lasted more than 40 minutes.
A few days ago, L'Oréal Group responded to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) released a documentary on "Abuse of Child Labor in the Perfume Supply Chain", saying that long before the BBC contacted L'Oréal in October last year, the group had taken action to address potential human rights issues and child labor issues.
Not only L'Oréal, but also many of the companies involved in the documentary have responded accordingly, but it has still sparked a series of controversies on the consumer side, and at the same time sparked discussions about issues related to corporate sustainability.
Are the perfume giants to blame?
Lancôme, Aerin, Givaudan 'named' by BBC
At the end of May, the BBC released the documentary "'Perfume's Dark Secret") after a six-month investigation into the international perfume supply chain, pointing the finger at "the child labor behind the world's best-selling perfume".
In July 2023, BBC investigators visited several jasmine farms on 720 acres in Egypt's Al-Gharbia province. Through conversations with dozens of families, landlords, workers, and jasmine picking site managers, investigators found that a significant portion of the jasmine pickers were children.
In the documentary, the children, the youngest of whom is only 5 years old, are woken up by their parents in the middle of the night and go to the jasmine field at 3 a.m. to pick them. In addition, these children who work in jasmine harvesting often do not wear shoes, headlamps or protective clothing, and suffer from overexposure to pollen and pesticides, causing skin and eye allergies.
In Egypt's children's law, children under the age of 14 are prohibited from working, with the exception of children between the ages of 12 and 14 who participate in seasonal agricultural work, as long as "their health and growth are not jeopardized and their learning is not hindered". In addition, it is also illegal for children to work between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The BBC sees children picking jasmine flowers to make perfume
"Children work in dangerous conditions all night, and pickers often earn as little as $1 a day, while the giants of the perfume industry make huge profits." Even though both adults and children are mobilized, there is only a limit to what a family can receive.
An Egyptian picker harvested jasmine with her 15-, 10-, and 5-year-old children, and after picking 1.5 kilograms of jasmine, she ended up earning about $1.5 a night.
The BBC team believes that the main culprit for all of this is the beauty giants at the top of the perfume value chain, who set low prices for jasmine ingredients, forcing parents to involve their children in the harvest, and finally child labour abuse upstream in the supply chain. Among them, Lancôme, Aerin Beauty and Givaudan were "named".
The BBC pointed out that these factories export jasmine essential oil to international perfume companies to process perfumes, and Switzerland-based Givaudan is one of the largest fragrance companies, but because brands such as L'Oréal and Estée Lauder have set very strict budgets for perfume companies, putting downward pressure on prices throughout the supply chain, and ultimately causing pickers to be paid less and less.
Paradoxically, almost all luxury fragrance brands claim zero tolerance for child labour, and every employer in the perfume supply chain has signed a letter of commitment to the United Nations to comply with the United Nations guidelines on safe working practices and the elimination of child labour.
"They didn't really do what they promised."
"After reading this, I don't think it's about child labor, the root of the problem is corporate greed."
"As consumers, we need to stop buying perfumes."
"I'm going to stop buying perfume, and it's hard to imagine what those kids go through to give us perfume.
At present, the impact of this documentary has spread to the United Nations, and a large number of consumers have said in the video comment section that they "will not buy luxury perfumes again".
L'Oréal responds to child labour challenges
After receiving this "accusation" from the BBC, L'Oreal, Estee Lauder, Firmenich and other groups have responded in a timely manner.
In response to the announcement, L'Oréal said it had been continuously monitoring its supply chain since the final jasmine harvest in October 2023, identifying potential human rights issues, including child labour, before the BBC contacted the group, and taking immediate action.
In order to "drive systemic change in support of local communities", L'Oréal has also established a coalition with the Egyptian government, perfume houses and other industry partners, led by the Fair Labor Association and the International Labour Organization (ILO), as part of its flagship project "Harvest the Future – Jasmine in Egypt" to work together to improve labour rights and working conditions in the jasmine supply chain.
"We are very disappointed that the BBC has chosen not to report on our specific actions in Egypt." L'Oréal said that these actions had been implemented before the BBC first contacted L'Oréal, and that L'Oréal had actively shared them with the BBC in detail. But apparently, these actions were "nowhere to be seen" in the BBC report.
Taken from the official website of L'Oréal
According to public information, in 2021, L'Oréal updated its Mutual Ethics Commitment, setting L'Oréal's expectations of its business partners, including a clause that explicitly states the need to "prevent child labor".
L'Oréal Group Mutual Ethics Commitment
The Estée Lauder Companies also said in a statement that the company believes in and protects children's rights and has contacted suppliers to "investigate this very serious issue," adding that the group recognizes the socio-economic complexities of Egypt's jasmine supply chain and is working to increase transparency. DSM Firmenich, the international flavor and fragrance company, also emphasized zero tolerance for child labor and engaged third-party human rights experts to conduct an independent review of its supply chain.
Overall, the companies have expressed a consistent "zero tolerance" and "proactive address" attitude towards the issues identified in the report.
However, some upstream factories have questioned the BBC's report. In a foreign media report, the Egyptian jasmine picking factory denied the accusations of child labor, saying that the company does not use any laborers under the age of 18, and the remuneration for picking jasmine flowers is higher than other comparable agricultural standards in Egypt; In addition, the issue of remuneration for pickers is discussed every year at the factory, and since 2022, the remuneration for workers has been increasing every year.
But some human rights experts and advocates argue that the perfume industry's efforts in supply chain management are indeed insufficient.
There is no longer a time to pursue sustainable development
As an important carrier of business for good and sustainable development, ESG construction has become the future that almost all beauty groups are pointing to. After the BBC's report on the perfume supply chain and the subsequent spillover impact, it is clear that it is urgent to build a deeply benevolent business system through ESG.
ESG is not only one of the evaluation systems of capital, and more and more eyes in the market are beginning to focus on corporate ESG.
The first is the introduction of relevant European legislation.
While all companies have publicly committed to human rights initiatives and zero tolerance for child labor, these commitments are in fact "voluntary" and often rely on third-party auditors to verify whether participants in the supply chain are practicing and violating the law.
But as the BBC said in the documentary, "the audit system used by the perfume industry to check the supply chain is seriously flawed" due to limitations in terms of personnel, investigation and subsequent punishment.
The introduction of the French Duty of Care Law in 2017 has been hailed as a milestone in advancing the transnational business and human rights regime. Under the law, companies with 5,000 employees in France and 10,000 employees at home and abroad must establish due diligence processes throughout their supply chains to identify and prevent violations of human rights, fundamental freedoms, personal health and safety, and the environment. This makes brands at the top of the supply chain take on the responsibility of protecting human rights in the form of "obligations".
The second is the supervision from the media and the orientation of consumer awareness.
The so-called "most people must sincerely see it as it is, sincerely want it to be like this, and then public opinion will be born." As the BBC report demonstrates, behind every public event, media scrutiny is an important part of the debate that can even influence consumer buying behaviour to a certain extent.
According to PwC's 2023 Global Consumer Insights Survey, more than 40% of global consumers are willing to pay more than 10% premium for brands and products with ESG sustainability characteristics, and young consumers born in the 90s are the main ones. Compared to the rest of the world, young consumers in China are more willing to pay a premium above average (close to 20%). At the same time, consumers' concerns are becoming more and more extensive, and their attention to social and environmental topics such as corporate reputation, localized procurement, environmentally friendly materials, biodegradability, and low carbon footprint continues to increase.
In short, whether it is the "hard rules" from the regulatory level or the indirect supervision from the media and consumers, all parties are forcing companies to do business for good. After all, a sustainability strategy with ESG as the starting point will directly affect the company's goodwill and compliance, which in turn will directly affect the company's business.
Therefore, it is urgent to promote sustainable business for good, and there is no doubt that leading beauty companies have an obligation to play a leading role.
Author/Xiang Tingting
Editor/Wu Sixin
Proofreading / Gui Yuqian