FW
Despite having considerable wool production, Kashmir exports 34 lakh kg of wool a year at throwaway prices due to lack of processing units. This resulted in losses of crores of rupees to the state economy as well as farmers. The Wool Board is able to purchase only 1.5 lakh kg a year out of the 34 lakh kg produced in the valley. The board was established in 1980 for undertaking market interventions in the wool sector.
The wool exported from Kashmir to Punjab and other states does not fetch breeders more than Rs 80 or Rs 100 per kg and in return finished woolen products from the same wool are bought back to the valley costing thousands of rupees.
Monopoly of middle men continue as the Wool Board apart from doing limited grading and auctioning of wool is unable to work like a regulator of this industry in Kashmir. It is not even able to play the role of a rate fixation authority. Ideally it should have been setting a base price of wool purchase from breeder to exporters but there are many hurdles in doing so such as a resource crunch. Jammu and Kashmir in total produce almost 80 lakh kgs of wool annually.
India’s prominent trade exhibition, Gartex has launched its 4th edition on garment & textile machinery, fabrics, accessories, laundry, innerwear & allied industry. The exhibition, featuring over 200 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors, will be held from August 10-12, 2019 in New Delhi.
The leading exhibition, in its 2019 edition, will offer a platform for garment and textile manufacturers as well as various players from other complementary sectors. It covers all segments of the industry including technologically advanced machinery, spares & consumables, raw materials, trimmings & embellishments, logistics & packaging solutions, etc.
Keeping up with the evolution of the Indian Garment and Textile industry, Gartex has introduced segment based differentiation in the form of focused zones and shows which will be spread in an exhibit area of 150,000 sq. ft. ‘Innerwear Manufac Zone’ and ‘India Laundry Show’ are two newest additions to the Gartex family. These specialised areas will meet the demands of the ever-expanding and transitioning Indian industry.
H&M has undertaken an initiative with Inter Ikea, the wood and paper company. The aim is to develop new sustainable textile fibers at attractive costs. The process involves regenerating renewable forest raw material into a textile fiber, using less energy and chemicals than conventional methods.
Both the Inter IKEA group and H&M intend to use the fiber in their products, but have stressed that the goal is for the industry as a whole to benefit from the innovation. Through this venture, H&M is reinforcing its efforts at focusing on wood as a way to create sustainable textile fibers and offering customers even more sustainably produced products at affordable prices.
The idea of utilizing forest resources for a more sustainable textile has developed from lab stage to a commercially viable product in just a few years. The move is the latest of several sustainable fashion initiatives from H&M. Earlier this month, the company signed the newly-unveiled Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, a UN Climate Change initiative, and also launched a Fair Living Wage Summit 2018 in Cambodia to shine a light on the issue of how to achieve living wages for textile and fashion workers in the industry’s current global climate.
Bangladesh is now developing its own fashion labels. Homegrown apparel brand Rise has so far opened four stores. It offers a mix of traditional Punjabi styles and modern street wear. The first store opened a year and a half ago. Similarly, Dapper Bespoke operates two stores in Dhaka and sells three-piece suits and other formals for men.
These labels took shape as the domestic market relied on foreign labels completely. They have stepped into retail by doing everything on their own-- choosing materials, designing, branding and making production decisions. Apparel makes up more than 80 per cent of Bangladesh's total exports -- with the value of exports having doubled in the past eight years -- and the sector is now beginning to cater to the tastes of domestic consumers.
Bangladesh can chalk up this turn of fortunes to stable its economic growth. The country’s gross domestic product has been growing. In the 12 months through June, it grew at a 7.86 per cent. Per capita GDP doubles every seven to eight years. The country is the world’s second biggest apparel exporter.
"Apparel industry professionals believe consumers and manufacturers should focus as much on the fiber content and care labels of garments they buy as they do on cost, whether these clothes are being sold online or in-store. Timo Rissanen, Associate Dean for the School of Constructed Environments at the Parsons School of Design emphasizes consumers should be made aware about the clothes they’re buying, especially as the quality of the cloth matters. Low-grade fibers or apparel made without much fiber in the cloth leads to poor quality. This makes the garments lose their shape, fade quickly, given away as a donation or thrown into a landfill."
Apparel industry professionals believe consumers and manufacturers should focus as much on the fiber content and care labels of garments they buy as they do on cost, whether these clothes are being sold online or in-store. Timo Rissanen, Associate Dean for the School of Constructed Environments at the Parsons School of Design emphasizes consumers should be made aware about the clothes they’re buying, especially as the quality of the cloth matters. Low-grade fibers or apparel made without much fiber in the cloth leads to poor quality. This makes the garments lose their shape, fade quickly, given away as a donation or thrown into a landfill.
Cotton emerges as the preferred material
The US, federal law mandates most textile and wool products to have a label listing the fiber content, country of origin, and the identity of the manufacturer or another business responsible for marketing or handling the item. According to the Cotton Incorported Lifestyle Monitor Survey, around 63 per cent consumers view fiber content as being important in their apparel purchase decisions. They feel that a product made of cotton is the most comfortable, sustainable, softest, of highest quality and more versatile. Shoppers also make a point of looking for cotton fiber when shopping for apparel gifts during the holidays due to its comfort and easy care.
Lesser after-care required leads to more sales
As per Monitor Research, around 28 per cent consumers prefer their garments to be made of a particular fiber, 24 per cent are
interested in their laundering instructions, 18 per cent wish to gauge their quality and durability, 11 per cent wish to ascertain their comfort level while 10 per cent were curious about their shrink ability.
A study by Kelton Global in partnership with LG Electronics reveals, Americans are not very interested in investing their time or energy in caring for their garments. As a study by Kelton Global in partnership with LG discovers, around 80 per cent of Americans overload their washers past capacity. The Kelton study also found that most people (53 per cent) risked ruining their clothes by mixing clothes they knew should be separated, just to avoid doing another load of laundry.
Laundry aversion is a might factor why over 42 percent of consumers usually check labels before purchasing the garments. Around, 52 per cent of them purchase only after knowing fiber content when shopping online.
Curious about the fiber content
Even though 72 per cent of consumers still prefer to buy clothes in-store,61 per cent of them prefer to research about them online. Out of these, 22 per cent cyber shoppers are more concerned about not being able to know the fiber content of their clothes.
Consumers are also becoming aware of microplastics from synthetic clothes polluting water, from oceans and rivers to the tap water. These particles come from polyester, nylon, acrylic, and other synthetic fibers. Researchers at Plymouth University in the UK (2016 study) found that more than 700,000 of these plastic microfibers leach out with every load of laundry. Researchers are now concerned about microplastic particles being consumed by marine life and thus enter the food chain. As Rissanen says, the onus of discovering eco-friendly materials should not lie with designers and consumers alone.
Shreejikrupa Spinners is setting up a polyester plant in Zimbabwe. The plant will have latest technology of recycling plastic into polyester. It has a big capacity to fulfil the local demand for polyester. At the moment Zimbabwe relies on polyester imports. The project will benefit the community immensely not only in terms of employment creation but downstream industries as well.
A number of textile players in developed countries have resorted to recycling plastic bottles into soft polyester thread to make eco-friendly clothing. Plastic bottles are made of polyethylene (PET), a form of polyester that is mostly associated with a fabric used in clothing and interiors. However, both are actually polymers, a derivative of fossil fuels. The fabric made out of the PET fiber is basically polypropylene and is ten times stronger than a normal polyester fabric.
Zimbabwe’s special economic zones are attractive to foreign investors and cover a range of economic activities such as free trade zones, export processing zones, industrial parks, economic and technology development zones and science and innovation parks.
Textile company Shreejikrupa Spinners, based in Gujarat, was established in 2011. The company offers a wide assortment of products that includes surgical cotton, sewing thread, slub yarn, citra yarn, knitting yarn, mélange yarn, weaving yarn and multifilament twisted yarn.
There has been FDI expansion in the textile and garment sector of Vietnam. The country has become appealing to large foreign investor groups in the textile and garment industry. German-based Amann Group is constructing a factory. At the new production site, the group will produce around 2,300 tons of sewing threads per year, mainly for the manufacture of apparel and shoes. Amann is one of the world’s top three leading producers of high-quality sewing and embroidery threads. The new facility will be added to Amann’s existing network of factories in various countries across Asia, including Bangladesh, China, India, and Indonesia.
Kraig Biocraft Laboratories plans to set up a center for research and development of silk as well as grow mulberry to support spider silk in the country. Kraig is an American developer of spider silk-based yarn. Kraig has chosen Vietnam to scale up its spider silk commercialisation efforts.
A total of nearly $15.9 billion in FDI was injected into more than 2,090 textile and garment projects in Vietnam by the end of last year. In the first half of 2018, the industry attracted another $2.8 billion in FDI. The domino effect created by FDI expansion in the textile and garment sector has also led to an increase in the number of foreign suppliers of machinery and equipment for the growing industry.
Green Supply Chain has ranked Levi’s as the world’s top apparel brand. Other apparel brands in the top 10 are: C&A, Nike, Primark, H&M, Inditex and Target. Leading global brands have been assessed based on their green supply chain practices in Asia. Green Supply Chain aims at using environmental big data to generate solutions to help leading multinational and local brands develop green procurement on a greater scale. In all, 306 brands were ranked, 76 in the textile and apparel sectors.
The apparel industry is pressing suppliers in Asia harder than ever on textile pollution information disclosure. Ten apparel retailers have joined the IPE Green Supply Chain Map, the only tool in the world to openly link leading multinational corporations to their suppliers’ environmental performance. These ten brands include Adidas, Esprit, Gap, Inditex, Levi’s, New Balance, Nike, Puma, Target and Tesco.
The latest report shows a huge spike in the number of apparel brands which are using the IPE’s database to screen their Chinese suppliers for environmental compliance and push them to disclose information. Levi’s based in the US has four brands – Levi’s, Signature by Levi Strauss & Co., Denizen and Dockers. The company now has RFID, or radio-frequency identification, in all its US stores.
The 28th edition of Milano Unica will be held from February 5 to 7, 2019 at Fieramilano Rho in Italy. The show will focus on the textiles and the accessories for the Sprin/Summer 2020 season, with a selection that, as usual, will offer visitors only the very best of Italian and international high-end production.
The opening ceremony will be dedicated to the presentation of new projects of the Milano Unica digital innovation and Sustainability. The theme areas and the content projects will provide inspiration and insights for in-depth analysis. The Area Tendenze will display creations that exhibitors developed based on the Music Menu theme. The area dedicated to the Sustainability Project, evolving in quality and quantity of offering with a new approach, will particularly emphasise aspects regarding process sustainability implemented by exhibitors, and the Synthesis Areas will present the most representative samples produced by the participating companies.
The Vintage Area and the areas dedicated to Fashion Job, Woolmark, SMI – Sistema Moda Italia, Linen Dream Lab/Celc, Origin Passion and Beliefs First, and to the sponsors Banca Sella and Lauretana. Among the most significant initiatives targeted to emerging young talents, Milano Unica also presents Eyes on Me, a showcase for designers who have just graduated from fashion schools, and Back to School, an extraordinary appointment with a renowned name in the fashion industry.
Tamil Nadu tops in overall textile exports from India. Second is Gujarat, which has prominent textile hubs like Surat, Ahmedabad and Vapi, and third is Maharashtra with hubs like Mumbai, Ichalkaranji, Solapur and Bhiwandi.
However all 29 states and seven union territories are known for their own strength and specialization in textile and clothing. Among the 1,399 operational textile mills, 752 were in Tamil Nadu, followed by Maharashtra (135) and Andhra Pradesh (112).
Under the Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS), launched last year, there are benefits in terms of a one time capital subsidy of 15 per cent for the garmenting and technical textiles segments with a cap of Rs 30 crores.
Besides, there is a 10 per cent capital subsidy for segments like weaving, processing, jute, silk and handlooms with a subsidy cap of Rs 20 crores for setting up new textile units or for expansion of existing units with benchmarked technology.
Production of Tamil Nadu textile manufacturers is expected to reach Rs 75,000 crores by 2020. Right now it’s Rs 50,000 crores. Currently India is looking to add around 3 to 3.5 million spindles a year against an average number of 2.5 million spindles over the past five years. The southern region is expected to contribute to about one million and more spindles every year.
