Real T-shirt import prices slid 3.1% annually since 2001, squeezing suppliers

For supply chain and procurement professionals, the cost of a cotton T-shirt has never been lower—but a new report from Clean Clothes Campaign and Public Eye shows that these savings are extracted by squeezing workers’ wages and safety conditions. The 3.1% annual real price decline over two decades raises critical questions about the sustainability of current sourcing strategies and the true cost of cheap apparel.

A new investigation by Swiss watchdog Public Eye and the global nonprofit Clean Clothes Campaign exposes how the relentless downward pressure on cotton T-shirt import prices directly undermines labor conditions in supplier countries, particularly Bangladesh. Tracing European Union import data from 2001 to 2024, the report finds that while the nominal price of a cotton T-shirt edged up from $2.15 to $2.67, this masks a 3.1% annual real decline when adjusted for EU and global inflation. In real terms, the price has roughly halved over 23 years, prompting the question: where do these savings come from? The answer, according to the report, lies in suppressed wages, squeezed factory margins, and compromised safety standards—all at odds with the high-profile labor rights commitments made by major apparel brands in recent years.

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Fast Retailing pays the most, at $16.95/kg, while LPP pays the least, at only $10.11/kg, compared to an EU-wide average of $16/kg and a Bangladesh-specific average of $13/kg.

The EU is the world’s largest import market for cotton T-shirts, and Bangladesh dominates as the primary supplier, accounting for 61% of these imports. In 2024, a T-shirt sourced from Bangladesh averaged just $2.06, even cheaper than the overall EU import average. The report drills into trade data for 2025, identifying the six brands that collectively buy roughly one-fifth of Bangladesh’s cotton T-shirt exports: Bestseller, Primark, H&M Group, Inditex (Zara), LPP, and Fast Retailing (UNIQLO). To enable fairer comparisons given weight differences across styles, the analysis uses price per kilogram. Fast Retailing pays the most, at $16.95/kg, while LPP pays the least, at only $10.11/kg, compared to an EU-wide average of $16/kg and a Bangladesh-specific average of $13/kg. Crucially, every one of these brands registered a real price decrease from 2021 to 2025, demonstrating that even the largest purchasers are not immune to the overarching deflationary trend.

The implications for supply chains are stark. When import prices stagnate or fall in real terms, the cost-cutting must occur somewhere. In the Bangladesh garment industry, that typically translates into wages that fall far below a living wage, excessive overtime, and factory conditions that contributed to tragedies like the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse. Despite the proliferation of brand pledges and industry initiatives—such as the Accord on Fire and Building Safety and various living-wage commitments—the data suggests that procurement strategies remain fundamentally misaligned with these promises. The EU’s forthcoming mandatory human rights due diligence legislation adds urgency: brands that cannot demonstrate they are paying prices sufficient to support decent work face legal and reputational exposure.