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In 2019, Supima hit milestones surpassing 500 global licensees and over 200 brands using the Supima trademark as a consumer-facing ingredient brand. Supima enters 2020 poised for further advancements in both market penetration and initiatives in verification and authentication. Supima has fostered deeper connections with its partner brands and manufacturers through education and promotional activities. Since 2016, Supima has had a 44 per cent increase in licensees.
Sustainability continues to be a major factor in fibers, fabrics and finished products and Supima is working to address the issue. The cotton origin verification platform with Oritain has been one of Supima’s main accomplishments.
Competing standards and organizations are not the best way to proceed. This does not work. Without knowing the origin and without knowing the environment that the cotton is produced in it is impractical to make any claims about the product. Hence, there is no easy solution and those brands/retailers that want to get their message right are going to have to work together with the supply chain and their constituent partners to be authentic about the product that they are putting on their shelves. With the impacts of a trade war with China, and the extenuating complications to global trade with the coronavirus, there has been a direct and significant effect on the demand and utilization of cotton in general.
The synthetic fiber market is growing at four per cent. The business landscape features fragmentation now. A handful of vendors dominate the market, while the remaining shares are distributed among several vendors. This is expected to lower the entry barriers for new vendors. The market is also witnessing a high participation of regional players, who are generating substantial market revenues. Leading vendors in synthetic fibers are involved in the research and development of innovative products. Customisation is a leading strategy that is being adopted by vendors to gain momentum in the global specialty fiber market. Collaboration and geographical expansion of production facilities is another key strategy being adopted by market players.
The market is expected to be dominated by Asia Pacific excluding Japan. This could be attributed to the soaring population in the region. Automotives are expected to boost the market’s growth. Expanding demand for automotive interior materials like tweed, velvet and velour is expected to drive the market’s development. Polyester is the most generally used material in automotives because of its light weight property. Developing demand for lighter automotive interior material is expected to drive the market till 2026.
Leading vendors operating in the global specialty synthetic fiber market are Mitsubishi, Toray, Asahi Kasei Fibers and Indorama.
Sri Lanka’s earnings from apparel exports grew 5.1 per cent in 2019. Exports to the European Union grew over five per cent. Exports to the United States grew 3.3 per cent. Exports to other markets such as Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and Japan also grew at a comparatively faster pace.
The country’s apparel sector expects immediate revenue loss due to the Coronavirus outbreak in China to be about a month’s value of apparel exports. With the industry expected to struggle due to the supply chain derailment, from the month of March till June, the hit is expected to be about 30 per cent of the cumulative export values for the four months. The industry has estimated the loss based on the assumption there will be no cancellations in orders from buyers and in that scenario the industry would be faced with a tough time with manufacturing the standard orders and the additional loss, which put together would be a burden. Meanwhile, fabric supplies are expected to arrive from China by end-March and the challenge for the industry would be to have the production completed and delivered within the standard cycle of 1.5 months. Overall costs are expected to increase, specially on the logistics side, due to the cancellations of routes from China to Sri Lanka.
French luxury group Kering plans to establish a hand embroidery workshop in India. The aim is to improve traceability and working conditions in its supply chain. The goal is not to cover all of Kering’s hand embroidery works but to get a direct and concrete knowledge of hand embroidery and thus also be able to better collaborate with external suppliers as regards working conditions, wages, prices and contractual commitments.
Kering is the owner of brands like Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga. Kering has reached 88 per cent of traceability for key raw materials and aims to increase the share to 100 per cent by 2025. The group has also lowered its environmental impact by 14 per cent between 2015 and 2018. Kering has linked up with the Institut Français de la Mode (IFM) to launch the first higher education research and teaching center dedicated to sustainability and corporate social responsibility in the fashion industry. The center will focus on a wide range of topics related to sustainability, from traceability to measurement, as well as eco-responsible business models. Aspects of creative ecology will also be studied in order to identify ways in which creative teams can develop ecological fashion and propose new sustainable creative offerings while developing tools for measuring and appropriating environmental and social issues.
Italy’s luxury sector has been dealt a hammer blow by the Coronavirus outbreak in China. In a country that is home to more than a third of global luxury shoppers, brands have been forced to shut shops, shelve new openings and postpone advertising spending. That is set to translate into major sales hit for the country’s fashion and textile industry. It also has implications for the luxury industry worldwide due to Italy’s importance as a supplier. The sector’s sales are expected to decline three per cent at current exchange rates. The industry which expected a slowdown in the first quarter now feels the whole year will go up in smoke.
Prolonged disruption of economic activity may result in supply chain issues for most brands. Italy is a major manufacturing hub and home to scores of specialist manufacturers of high-end goods from shoes and leather goods to men’s wear. Foreign buyers of Italian textiles have started cancelling orders. Global luxury brands including Gucci and Louis Vuitton are scaling back orders with Italian suppliers. Even before the unprecedented restrictions were put in place in March, brands had been cutting orders from late January. A company that was producing handbags for Gucci has no orders for April or May and has been brought to a standstill.
As per OTEXA, the imports of jeans by the US declined by 13.29 percent in value to $265.99 million in January compared to $306.78 million in the same month in 2019. For the 12 months through January, its imports of denim apparels declined by 4.43 per cent to $3.69 billion.
The country’s imports from Mexico dropped by 32.28 percent in January to $41.47 million in value while that from China plummeted by 60.17 per cent to $33.94 million. For the year through January, imports from Mexico decreased by 5 per cent to $782.78 million, while China’s shipments declined by 31.05 per cent to $644.66 million.
However, imports from Bangladesh increased by 5.18 per cent to $51.87 million in January. For the 12-month period, these imports increased by 6.96 per cent to $601.86 million and shipments from Vietnam rose by 27.61 per cent to $384.51 million.
Other major suppliers of jeans to the country during the month included Egypt, whose exports increased by 25.33 percent to $15.16 million; Cambodia whose exports increased by 91.37 per cent to $16.1 million, and Sri Lanka who exported 18.22 per cent more jeans to the US.
The European Apparel and Textile Organization (Euratex) has recommended three essential elements for the success of the new EU industrial plan. The first element includes assessment of the proposed measure in a global context. European companies cannot be subject to new rules, standards or regulations unless all players do play with the same rules.
Secondly, Euratex claims innovation into a more sustainable industry has an important cost the end consumer is not always willing to pick up. This may jeopardise the financial sustainability of the industry, especially for smaller companies. Therefore, adequate measures should be taken to alleviate the burden of green investments, especially for SMEs.
Finally, Euratex quotes labour force shortage as an important barrier to the development of the industry. In 2018, 34 per cent of the textile and clothing workforce was over 50 years old. It is therefore urgent to make an effort to both upskill and reskill the current workforce and to attract young talent.
With Southeast Asia and Turkey on the brink of saturation, Ethiopia is now positioned as one of the most promising hubs for apparel sourcing. Low salaries, foreign investment led by China and commitment to infrastructure are the country’s biggest incentives for operators in the sector. The first textile factories in Ethiopia were launched in 1939. The sector is growing at an annual average of more than 50 per cent and hosting around 65 international investment projects. The factories produce wool, cotton and nylon fabrics, acrylic and cotton threads, sewing thread and readymade garments, among others. The country plans to be the main textile supply hub in Africa, following in the footsteps of other countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh. In 2016, foreign sales of the sector were 56 per cent more than the previous year’s. In 2019, the country’s exports of fashion goods to Europe were 49 per cent higher than the previous year’s.
H&M opted for Ethiopia as a textile hub in 2014. The Swedish fashion distribution group chose to set up joint ventures with local manufacturers to train workers and prepare factory executives. Currently, the Swedish retailer has 31 suppliers in Ethiopia. Inditex, Decathlon and Primark are some of the other major operators in the sector that have opted for the African country.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has refuted a report by US Senator Robert Menendez on alleging Bangladesh apparel factories of labor rights and safety violations. Submitted recently, the report titled ‘Seven Years after Rana Plaza, Significant Challenges Remain,’ expressed concerns about the welfare of workers in the garment industry.
The report says, over 1,100 Bangladeshis were killed and thousands injured when Rana Plaza caved in on April 23, 2013 in the nation's deadliest industrial incident. BGMEA has demanded further clarification on this as the sample size of the interview-based report seems over-generalised The association has called for more substantiated details about physical abuse and mistreatment of a worker named Shopna interviewed in the report.
The association also refuted allegation of harassment and low wage payment. It stated that the workers of Youngone are paid above the nationally set minimum wage of Tk 8,000.The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh receives regular phone calls from workers about occupational health and safety. It received 36 calls in 2019 and 2020.
On the complaint of termination of workers by 104 garment factories in December 2018, the association revealed that a committee was formed in May last year to assess the appropriateness of the number of terminated labourers and filed cases and to find justified solutions. Bangladesh amended the labour laws and increased the minimum wage for garment workers in 2018.
Hun Sen Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen says China has arranged vessels to freight raw materials for garment and footwear production to Cambodia from now until May. Due to a shortage of raw materials from China caused by Covid-19, some factories in Cambodia had partially suspended operations, affecting almost 20,000 workers. The fast delivery of raw materials to Cambodia came after a delegation of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce visited Cambodia recently and met with Cambodian Minister of Industry and Handicraft Cham Prasidh.
He said during the meeting, Prasidh presented a list of necessary raw materials that Cambodia is facing a shortage for the garment and footwear industry. He added that the minister also initiated a "Green Lane" to facilitate and speed up shipments, logistics, and customs processing clearance, so the raw materials could be reached Cambodia faster.
