Tesco set to ethically source clothing from Ethiopia

British retailer Tesco, currently the world's third largest retailer, revealed plans to source

clothing from Ethiopia during this week's Retail Week Live Conference. The company stressed the importance of keeping to high ethical principles, in order to prevent factory catastrophes from occurring similar to the ones previously reported in Bangladesh.

Philip Clarke, Tesco's group CEO, gave the keynote speech during the conference and noted how the industry is changing at an unseen pace. "We are entering a new era of retailing, and the change which is taking place is transformational," said Clarke. "It brings challenges, particularly when combined with the deep and brutal consumer recession which we have just lived through, but which perhaps we might be starting to emerge from."

Clarke points out how the modern consumer wants know where their products come from. "The connected customer expects transparency. They want to see how their [products are] made, how it reaches our shelves, how we treat the people who produce it. They want that confidence in what we sell them and this is a challenge we need to rise to."

Yesterday during the Supply Chain Stage session, Giles Bolton, ethical trading director at Tesco added: "Ethiopia is a very exciting potential country to grow a supply chain but needs to grow up to be a well regulated, ethical new industry." He noted that Ethiopia could be the start of more garment production in Africa, which could become the leading factor of economic improvement as it has been in Asia.

Bolton has reportedly met the country's ministers of labour to assure the ongoing improvement of the industry will be closely monitored and regulated and Tesco has placed its first orders with factories in Ethiopia, according to Reuters. "It's fundamentally important to customers who want to be confident that everything they buy has not been sourced in poor conditions."