Top retailers in the UK like John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Next have agreed to support moves to stop modern slavery in textile trade. Some companies use slavery to supply retailers with goods and services. That means some of these products have been produced by someone exploited into forced labor. Criminal groups operate in the shadows of supply chains to exploit people for commercial gain.

The retailers have pledged to raise awareness to prevent slavery, protect vulnerable workers and help bring more criminals to justice. Businesses in the UK with a turnover of more than £36 million have to publish annual statements setting out what they are doing to stop modern slavery. But fewer than two in three have complied. Anti-slavery operations are at an all-time high in the country. More than 920 live investigations were conducted by the police in September, in excess of 2,000 victims.

In October thousands of businesses were warned they could face action if they failed to meet legal obligations. The UK has pledged £40 million to aid more than 5,00,000 people around the world who have either survived modern slavery or are at risk of becoming victims. The support will address slavery and trafficking in countries with a high prevalence of these crimes in South Asia.

The US Cotton Trust Protocol – an integrated data collection, measurement and verification procedure that will document US cotton production practices and their environmental impact – will help the cotton industry to meet its 2025 sustainability goals. Introduced by Cotton Council International at the Cotton Sourcing USA Summit in Scottsdale, AZ, data generated by the Protocol will benchmark farmers’ gains towards the industry goals and will provide the global textile supply chain additional assurances that US cotton is produced in a responsible manner.

Details of the Protocol are being fine-tuned, and a pilot program will be launched in 2019 and fully implemented with the 2020 cotton crop year. Participating growers will have to adopt a data tool that allows for the quantitative measurement of key sustainability metrics, such as the FieldPrint Platform. Growers will also have to complete a self-assessment checklist of best management practices, with a sampling of participating producers subjected to independent verification.

The online interface and associated databases are currently being developed by The Seam, a leading provider of trading and technology solutions for commodities trading, particularly in cotton.

The global textile industry waste management market is expected to grow nearly 11 per cent by 2021. One driver is improvements in membrane technology. Membrane technology plays a vital role in wastewater treatment. Some technologies like wastewater treatment using membrane reactors and desalination are already being implemented in the industry on a large scale.

Besides addressing the issue of water scarcity, membrane technologies meet sustainability criteria like the environmental impact, ease of use, land use, adaptability, and flexibility. However, there is still scope for improvement in terms of affordability and cost, energy consumption, and expertise.

One trend in the market is rising patent filings. The global textile industry waste management market is witnessing increased expenditure by vendors on R&D activities, leading to product innovation and increased safety. In addition, vendors in the market are working to reduce the cost of upgrades and maintenance.

In terms of geography, the Asia Pacific region led the global textile industry waste management market during 2016 and is anticipated to continue the dominion during the forecast period. Manufacturers are coming up with marketing strategies based on the durability of the product, and the competitive environment in the market will grow further with a rise in product or service extensions and technological innovations.

Bangladesh’s apparel exports to India grew 167 per cent in October 2018. For Q1 the country’s apparel exports to India were $187 million. During this period woven garment exports to India were up 300 per cent from the same period last year. Knitwear exports doubled.

The remarkable surge in exports to India is attributed to foreign brands’ and retailers’ opening up a number of outlets and stores in India – which, in turn, have been sourcing heavily from Bangladesh. Foreign retailers buy a lot of garment items from Bangladesh for Indian customers, especially for the rising middle class. Last fiscal, apparel exports to the country from Bangladesh witnessed a 100 per cent gain – a trend which is still continuing.

India’s imports of readymade garments from Bangladesh during July-November 2017 rose 56 per cent compared with the same period last year. Knitted apparel imports grew 69 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Woven apparel imports grew 51 per cent compared to the same period of 2016.

GST has led to a flood of textile imports from Bangladesh to India. The main reason is the exemption of basic customs duty on imports of garments from Bangladesh.

Cotton production in Tanzania has increased by 67 per cent this harvest season compared to the previous one. Care has been taken to regulate the quality of agricultural inputs. The plan is to create good environments that could increase farmers’ efficiency, productivity and eventually profit. Cotton is Tanzania’s largest export crop after coffee. It contributes 24 per cent to total agricultural exports and four per cent to total exports.

Simiyu, Shinyanga, Mwanza, and Singida regions have been cited as Tanzania’s cotton growing giants out of seven chief cotton producing Lake Zone regions. The area under cotton has seen an increase from 66 to 77 per cent depending on the region.

Cotton is one of Tanzania's key crops. Around 99 per cent of the country’s cotton is grown in the western region. Around two million of the country’s 42 million people depend on it for their livelihood. It provides around 13 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange – second only to coffee in agricultural exports. Through contract farming, cotton buyers agree to provide inputs, finance and advice on credit to primary producers of the product in return for having exclusive rights to purchase the crop at harvest time. Contract farming areas have already doubled the levels of pesticide distribution.

Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), the leading association for the apparel, footwear, and textile industry, recently released the 2018 Higg Facility Modules on Higg.org. The Higg Facility Modules are a part of the Higg Index, a suite of sustainability assessment tools to address value chain inefficiencies, resolve damaging practices, and achieve the environmental and social transparency consumers are demanding.

Factories can use the updated Higg Facility Environmental Module (Higg FEM) and the Higg Facility Social & Labor Module (Higg FSLM), which is accessible online for the first time, to evaluate value chain sustainability performance.

The Higg FEM assessment measures factories’ environmental management systems, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, water use, wastewater, emissions to air, waste management, and chemical use and management. The new web-based Higg FSLM introduces the industry’s first standardized self-assessment for measuring factories’ social and labor performance.

Informed by the Social and Labor Convergence Project, the SAC developed the Higg FSLM to evaluate recruitment and hiring practices, working hours, wages and benefits, employee health and safety, and community engagement, among other areas. The SAC is working towards accreditation as a host of the converged assessment and will release a scored version of Higg FSLM at the end of 2019.

The 4th annual Performance Textile Fair, to be held from January 23 to 25, 2019 in Orlando, will launch a new racquet industry event co-located with the PGA Merchandise Show. The PGA Show, which has already been a main feeder for the Performance Textile Fair, will welcome the Racquet & Paddle Racquet Sports Conference this year. The addition of this new event promises to draw even more buyers interested in learning about and purchasing goods designed for the activewear crowd.

The show this year will feature 20 more exhibitors for a total of 60 from all around the world. Suppliers will include companies such as Brrr and Polartec from the US; Everest, Erictex and Fortune from the Taiwan; and Carvico of Italy. The Performance Textile Fair will present the Material Science Center, a designated space with illuminated displays showcasing the newest fabric technologies. The interactive area allows attendees to touch, feel and learn about each product.

Chinese investors expressed their deep desire to enter into joint ventures with Pakistan for importing high quality fabric that would help them improve bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries. A Chinese delegation from China National Textile & Apparel Council (CNTAC) visited Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT). The objective was their keen interest in developing business in Pakistan specifically in the textile sector for changing the economic landscape of the country.

They showed immense interest in investing in Pakistan as it is amongst the largest cotton producers in the world and their high quality fabric can be exported to China thus enhancing the productivity and boosting trade relations between the two countries. They requested that Chinese investors should be provided with specific promotion incentives to deepen trade relations. They invited PBIT and potential investors from Punjab for showcasing their products in the biggest textile expos conducted in Shanghai.

Burana, CEO, PBIT told them that Minister for Industries, Commerce and Investment, Punjab is interested in visiting China with delegates from the textile sector for further economic cooperation. He proposed that a joint working group should be constituted between PBIT and CNTAC to explore possibilities of promotion & cooperation between Punjab and China specifically in textiles.

Pakistan hopes to complete the second FTA with China by June next year. Pakistan and China signed their first FTA in 2007 and since then bilateral trade – albeit increasing – has tilted heavily in favor of the latter.

The country’s trade deficit vis-à-vis China ballooned to nearly $10 billion in the last fiscal year of 2017-18. Both countries have expressed willingness to revisit products availing duty concessions, but the second round of FTA has been hanging fire for too long.

Pakistan hopes to get bilateral trade benefits with the world’s second largest economy. Pakistan will request China to remove other non tariff barriers so that it can boost exports. Duty free market access to China will boost exports of Pakistan’s made-ups.

Pakistan and China will decide how much textile, leather, and other goods can be exported to fully utilise the duty free facility. At this stage, the list of products that would be eligible for duty-free has not been prepared. There will be further discussions on finalising details of market access and the balance of payment support. Industrial cooperation will be accelerated and both sides have decided to move with the next phase with a focus on industrial expansion, agricultural revitalisation and integration of trade ties.

The Indian Cotton Federation (ICF) has estimated cotton crop for 2018-19 in the country to be 373 lakh bales of 170 kg a bale. Production in the north zone including Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan was expected to be 61 lakh, the central zone, 200 lakh bales (Gujarat, Maharasthra, and Madhya Pradesh), and the south zone 107 lakh bales. Production from the entire country was expected to be 373 lakh bales and imports might be 18 lakh bales. The provisional estimate for consumption was 320 lakh bales.

Without an official crop estimate, there were uncertainties about the cotton crop situation. There were also reports of a lower crop. The uncertainties were leading to hardships for cotton trade and the textile mills. According to a study by the Federation, the average crop size in the last 12 years in the country is 377 lakh bales. The average of the worst year is 348 lakh bales. For the cotton year 2018-19, around five lakh packets of cotton seeds are sold.

Except for a few pockets in Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, all the cotton growing areas have received sufficient rain. So, the cotton production this year should be higher.