THE WHAT? L’Oreal has published a statement in response to BBC documentary, Perfume’s Dark Secret, which showed footage of children working in Egyptian flower fields; the jasmine picked was traced up the supply chain to two luxury perfume houses, one of which was Lancome.

THE DETAILS The French beauty giant said that it ‘always acts immediately’ when it identifies problems in its supply chain and its on-going monitoring process identified potential human rights issues in Egypt in October last year before the BBC got in touch. It has since put concrete actions in place ahead of the next harvest

THE WHY? L’Oreal said in a statement, “To drive systemic change in support of local communities, in order to eliminate child labour whilst protecting the livelihood of the families who depend on jasmine picking, we have been a key player in setting up a coalition, in partnership with the Egyptian government, the fragrance houses and other industry partners. This coalition is being led by the Fair Labor Association and the International Labour Organization, as part of their flagship ‘Harvesting the Future – Jasmine in Egypt’ project. 

“We are very disappointed that the BBC chose not to include our concrete actions in Egypt, which we had already started to implement before they first contacted us and which we have actively shared with them in detail.”