responsible sourcing

We partner with vendors to achieve outstanding quality for Target-brand products. Our mission is to ensure that our vendors operate efficient, safe and ethical factory environments where they can produce safe, reliable, high-quality products.

Teams focused on social compliance, supply-chain sustainability, product safety and quality assurance, product investigating and recalls, and operations all work together to make sure we provide the best products for our guests.

When it comes to sourcing products, we take a page from our company's founder, George Dayton, who was well-known for his strong business ethics. We still aspire to the highest ethical and legal standards today, and we'll only work with vendors and suppliers who share our commitment. To make sure we meet those standards, we also work with regulators, manufacturers, industry organizations and other retailers around the world to continually set the bar higher for our industry as a whole. We continually look for opportunities to improve our standards and processes.

view our Vendor Code of Conduct link opens in a new window

Our Target Sourcing Services team sources Target-brand merchandise from all over the world, anticipating issues and potential risks while making the best decisions for our business. We continually evaluate the mix of countries from which we source and adjust for many factors, including production quality, social responsibility, capacity, speed to market and pricing. We clearly label all products with the country of manufacture in compliance with regulations established by U.S. governmental agencies.

Target is committed to providing increased supply chain transparency. To meet this objective, we publish a list of all registered factories producing our owned-brand products. Target partners with its vendors to maintain an accurate list of factories producing owned-brand products.This list is subject to change and updates will be provided on a quarterly basis.

view the list

We're a founding member of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorismlink opens in a new window (C-TPAT), a collaborative government-business initiative that strengthens international supply chain and U.S. border security. As part of the partnership, we conduct routine audits to ensure our international supply chain processes continue to meet standards.

We take steps in the following areas to make sure all of our products are sourced responsibly.

• product safety & quality assurance
• social compliance
• supply-chain sustainability

We believe that every animal deserves to be free from hunger and thirst, discomfort, pain, injury or disease, fear and distress, and is free to express normal behavior. We believe this should last for an animal's entire lifetime, including birth, growth/rearing/breeding, feed/water/shelter, and transport and slaughter.

We do not support the use of routine, non-therapeutic antimicrobials—including all antibiotics—to promote growth. We expect our suppliers and the producers they work with to phase out this practice and only use antimicrobials when medically necessary.

cage-free shell eggs
In January 2016, we announced that we will work with our suppliers to increase our offerings of cage-free shell eggs nationwide, working toward a 100 percent cage-free shell egg assortment by 2025, based on available supply.

pork sourcing
We’re partnering closely with our pork product vendors to eliminate the use of sow gestation crates by 2022.

All palm oil in Target’s owned brand food (Market Pantry, Archer Farms, Simply Balanced), personal care (up & up) and household cleaning products (up & up) will be fully traceable and sustainably sourced by 2018 or sooner.

Target is committed to maintaining the highest ethical standards as outlined in its Standards of Vendor Engagement within our Vendor Code of Conduct link opens in a new window and other human rights polices for our global sourcing operations. We hold all vendors, manufacturers, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers accountable for abiding by these standards throughout our supply chain and in the manufacture and finishing of products ordered by Target. The policy is publicly available and details Target’s standards for business throughout its supply chain, including no forced or compulsory labor, fair wages, and no child labor, among others. 

The palm oil and palm derivatives used in Target-branded products covered by our commitment must not cause deforestation or habitat destruction on high conservation values (HCV), high carbon stock (HCS) forest, or peat lands. Target will also ensure that any new developments only proceed on the basis of the principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). Target will work actively with its vendors, suppliers, and other stakeholders to implement our policy and to remove all unacceptable sources of palm oil, where required.

Target commits to continued progress along the spectrum of Book and Claim, Mass Balance, and Segregated suppliers, with specific multi-year targets and reporting, leading to full traceability in the supply chains of products covered by our commitment in 2018 or sooner.