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HSBC’s Serai Platform Aims to Trace Xinjiang-Made Cotton

Workers remove by hand impurities such as leaves from cotton fibres in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region city Turpan, China. — Workers in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region city Turpan, China. Getty Images. (Chien-min Chung)

Daphne Milner

16 February 2021

Serai, the online business-to-business platform launched by HSBC in 2019, has enabled suppliers to input data on the products they are handling at each stage of the supply chain. The aim is to offer companies, buyers and suppliers greater visibility over the origins of their goods at a time when cotton producers in Xinjiang, China come under increased scrutiny by the US government over allegations of forced labour and human rights abuses.

Serai also encourages suppliers to bring in third party surveyors to check and approve the data. Brands, retailers and buyers can then send on examples of Xinjiang-sourced cotton to US law enforcement.

“What we want to do is to build a platform that makes it easy for businesses to share information with each other, and get information from each other and build relationships with each other,” Serai CEO Vivek Ramachandran told the South China Morning Post.

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