Cordelia Rayner follows the journey of a kilo of cotton from the field to the fashion shelves, asking what it really costs

In the past decade, budget clothing has become big business with the average price of a t-shirt falling by almost a third. People in the West are now buying more clothes than ever before but who is gaining from this boutique boom: what is the true cost of cheap clothing?

The price from farm to shelf • Farmer to Ginner: Seed cotton US$0.76/kg • Ginner to International merchant: Cotton lint US$1.20/kg • Merchant to spinner: Cotton lint US$1.32/kg • Spinner to t-shirt manufacturers: Cotton yarn US$2.50/kg • Importer to retailer: Cotton t-shirt US$7.55/kg* • Retailer to consumer: US$70/kg** * This is based on the average importation price of a t-shirt to the US in 2005 which was US$1.51 ** This is based on a single shirt retailing at US$14. 1 kg of t-shirts roughly equates to five shirts

To find out, I followed a kilogram of cotton from farm to
t-shirt, tracking its growing price along the way. On the journey I spoke to workers, activists, economists and perhaps the most powerful people of all, the consumers. The goal was to discover what consumers are buying, for how much and at what price.

The journey began in Burkina Faso. Here, at a temporary weighing station, farmers relaxed as the payments for their harvest were totted up. Aside from joking with one another they talked seriously about their uncertain future, as farmer Simon Raphael lamented: "In other countries, they have a lot of other things they can grow, here we don't have that option, we're obliged to grow cotton even though we don't make much money from it... those who are well off and have money in the bank can be counted on the fingers of one hand."

However, farmers aren't the ones facing real crisis. The ginning companies, whose job it is to separate the cotton lint from its seeds, have been making a loss for the past three seasons despite cotton supposedly being high on the WTO's agenda since the 2003 trade talks, as international cotton expert, Gerald Estur, explains, "It's been years and they [the ginning companies] haven't seen much? they think the developed countries are dragging their feet. Cotton is the only cash crop in this area of the world? without it the farmers head to town or Europe with the mistaken idea that there will be jobs."

As the cargo ship pulls out of Togo little, if any, profit stays in Africa. Over two-thirds of Burkina Faso's cotton is bound for China.


Seamstress Wang Guohong works in a factory on the outskirts of Shanghai, although she's from the Anhui Province and as such is one of the millions of migrant workers fuelling China's booming textile industry. Sitting at her sewing machine, she makes it clear that she's more than happy to play her part, "I like this job, that's why I've worked here two years." However, she pays a dear price for it.

"My hometown is very rural, the mountains and the rivers are beautiful. It's tough for us and we have a kid at home. Of course I miss him."
As a rural citizen, Guohong has limited rights in urban areas and her son cannot live with her. This citizenship system (known as Hukou in China) is familiar to economist Pietra Rivoli. "Even today rural dwellers have fewer rights than urbanites - the textile industry relies on this reservoir to staff their factories. Much of the success of China's industry is dependent on this two-tier system."

The t-shirts Guohong sews are designer pieces for companies like Lacoste, a label that is in demand in downtown New York, our final port of call. Last year the US imported over 2 billion t-shirts, many from China. In a discount designer store called Century 21, staff lay out t-shirts for hungry shoppers, like Chris Lopada. "I like to get designer stuff at affordable prices. This store has great stuff so long as you have patience and determination.''

Lopada isn't alone in his desire for cheap clothes but it is clear that, whilst no one was forced to make his shirt, his "affordable price" came at the cost of hundreds of thousands of people's standards of living. What is worse though is that, according to labour rights activist Bama Athreya, improvements to working conditions in clothing factories made in the past five years are now being undone by the growth of budget clothing companies. The cost of seed cotton is also being depressed as producers seek to cut their costs. So people like Guohong and Raphael are woven into a system that must constantly make more for less.


So what's the answer? Is an ethical and equal market attainable? To Rivoli this is a complex question. "If you are a single mother with four children and you're trying to clothe them for school then it seems to me the ethical thing to do is to clothe them as cheaply as possible so that you're able to feed them as well. On the other hand, if you have disposable income and care about the process by which the clothes land in your dresser, then you should buy ethically."

The journey of cotton shows that the power to dictate prices, and therefore working conditions, lies with the consumer. As long as shoppers choose budget clothes, the price for their savings will be paid elsewhere by workers like Wang and Simon. The cost they pay may be leaving their children unschooled; or working in dormitories far from their homes; or it could be working in an area environmentally ravaged by heavy industry. Working in a system tailored to someone else's needs, and these farmers and factory workers pay for the discounts the consumers enjoy.

Cordelia Rayner is an arts and current affairs documentary producer. The Cost Of... an investigation into the real costs behind common commodities will be broadcast in May