House Member Questions Clothing Company's Practices in Peru

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., asked the leaders of luxury apparel company Loro Piana to defend its practices in sourcing vicuña wool in Peru.

Garcia, who is Peruvian-American, wrote to the company's CEO and its chairman, saying he is troubled by a Bloomberg story about Loro Piana's business in Lucanas, an indigenous community in the Andes Mountains.

"While Loro Piana’s prices have increased, the price per kilo for fibers paid to the Lucanas community has fallen by one-third in just over a decade; and the villages’ revenue from the vicuña has fallen 80%," he wrote.

He asked the company to respond to his questions, including what wages are paid to workers who raise and shear the vicuñas; why production has fallen; and what charitable contributions Loro Piana makes in a region where people live in mud houses with no plumbing.

"Pier Luigi Loro Piana has previously been quoted on the mutual benefits to both the Indigenous population and the company of paying at least $400 per kilo for the Lucanas’ wool. However, the 2023 contract is now reported at $280 per kilo," he wrote. "Has the company analyzed the impact falling prices has on the Lucanas’ ability to continue as a supplier into the future and how this could negatively impact not just the people of Lucanas, but also your own business?"