FW
Cotton growers in Nigeria are losing out with rising demand for the commodity in the global market. They face lack of high quality seeds, poor access to extension services, low prices of the produce, pest infestation, price fluctuation, and a dearth of ginneries and textile mills.
Farmers want improved seeds, fertilizer, modern equipment like tractors for clearing of land and the right support. Farmers are also looking for viable markets. They say allowing foreign markets to determine the price of the produce has led to the death of cotton industry in the country. Production of cotton in Nigeria is dominated by small scale farmers.
The cotton industry in Nigeria used to be very viable, employing a large number of people. But this became history right from the 1990s. The capacity utilization which was more than 63 per cent dipped considerably. The number of textile mills dropped. The entire industry has virtually become moribund.
The Institute of Agricultural Research is the only institute mandated to work on cotton in Nigeria. But it is poorly funded and not able to function well and produce good quality seeds for farmers. The Central Bank of Nigeria has come up with a textile intervention fund to boost the sector.
As per Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, knitwear exports during first five months of current financial year increased 10.58 per cent compared to the corresponding period of last year. The country exported about 52,171 thousand dozens of knitwear worth $1.214 billion during the period from July-November, 2018-19 as compared to exports of 43,388 thousand dozen valuing $1.098 billion of same period of last year.
Meanwhile, the country also earned $1.022 billion by exporting about 18,465 thousand dozen of readymade garments as against the exports of 15,306 thousand dozen of readymade garments valuing $1.019 billion of same period of last year. The exports of readymade garments during the last five months witnessed a 0.28 percent growth as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
Bedwear exports from the country, in first five months of current fiscal year, were recorded at $966.007 million as compared to exports of 947.404 million of same period last year. About 165,686 metric tons of bedwear was exported during the period from July-November, 2018-19, as compared to the exports of 156,823 metric tonne, registering an increase of 1.96 percent.
India managed to grow its exports in 2018. Double-digit export growth continued for half the year. But high crude prices and rising domestic demand continued to inflate the trade deficit at a faster rate. The year started with monthly trade deficit soaring to a 56-month high. By October, it had risen to more than $153 billion. Crippling capital inadequacy was felt in the wake of GST.
Imports also shot up as volatile crude prices made a comeback to haunt policymakers after a year of relative ease. India’s current account deficit is expected to triple in the second quarter of fiscal ’19, or about three per cent of GDP, from the second quarter of the last fiscal year.
As a result, import restrictions were placed and inbound duties were raised on six separate occasions for hundreds of products including textile inputs, steel, mobile phones and solar panels, among others. The move was strongly criticised for raising protectionist barriers at a time when economic growth was tepid. But India managed to navigate through a field of tariff landmines as a trade war between the United States and China heated up throughout the year. The US threatened to cut market access for Indian goods but negotiations are on.
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.
