In May 2024, a BBC World Service documentary highlighted working conditions on jasmine farms in Egypt supplying the top conglomerates producing perfume globally,

According to the documentary, children as young as five were found working in hazardous and unsafe working conditions on smallholder farms during the harvest seasons June-November. Jasmine pickers are exposed to mosquitos, pesticides, and high temperatures that can reach 40C, with pickers developing allergies affecting their skin, eyes and chest. Workers are reportedly earning as little as $1 a day amid high inflation, and forced to work long hours to make ends meet, while parents have no choice but to rely on their children to make enough money to get by.

Furthermore, the jasmine supply chain was described as opaque, with a lack of transparency, and reported that perfume brands impose a strict budget on fragrance houses to create the products, leading to a trickle down of wealth along the supply chain, with the priority being to use the cheapest jasmine possible.

In addtion, the report highlighted inadequate due diligence measures to mitigate the risk of labour rights abuses, including child labour. For example, it was revealed that perfume companies relied on fragrance houses to instruct third party audits to demonstrate due diligence, however reports from the audit firms mentioned (SEDEX and UEBT) did not reflect the reality on the ground, including the use of child labour and the late-night work pickers are required to do.

In light of these allegations, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited the top ten conglomerates producing perfume globally (Estée Lauder Companies, L'Oreal, Revlon, Parlux, COTY, LVMH, Shiseido, Designer Parfums, PUIG and Interparfums, Inc), as identified in the documentary, to respond to a series of questions regarding its purchasing practices in relation to sourcing practices for jasmine from Egypt, the due diligence measures being taken to mitigate and remediate labour rights abuses in the supply chain. While Estée Lauder Companies and L'Oreal were reported to be sourcing jasmine from Egypt, Revlon, Parlux, COTY, LVMH, Shiseido, Designer Parfums, PUIG and Interparfums, Inc. had not.

We asked the companies to respond to the following questions:

• Do you source jasmine from the Al-Gharbia region in Egypt AND/OR the factories reported in the documentary (A. Fakhry & Co, Hashem Brothers and Machalico), which have been highlighted as receiving jasmine from farms in locations where children under 15 were reported to have been working (Nagrid, Surad, Kom El-Naggar and Suubra Beloula). This includes the farm directly owned by Machalico where the BBC identified child labour.
• What due diligence are you undertaking for your jasmine supply chain?
• How do you investigate and remediate allegations of child labour?
• How do you ensure that workers picking jasmine within your supply chain receive fair prices and a decent wage for the jasmine that they pick?

Estée Lauder Companies, L'Oreal, Designer Parfums and Interparfums, Inc. provided responses. Revlon, Parlux, COTY, LVMH, Shiseido and PUIG did not. The responses and non-responses can be found below.