FW
The Centre has brought genetically modified (Bt) cotton seeds under price controls. According to a notification issued by the agriculture ministry, the decision was taken in view of farmers finding the seeds “to be highly priced” and the need to bring “uniformity” in their prices across the country.
Bt cotton was first introduced in India in 2003 and in a couple of years it found takers in almost all parts of the country. About 90 per cent of the country’s cotton area of roughly 11.8 million hectares in 2015-16 is under the Bt coverage, suggests an industry estimate.
The ministry invoked the Seed (Controls) Order, 1983, issued under the Essential Commodities Act, to impose price controls on Bt cotton seeds, but hasn’t fixed a pan-India maximum selling price (MSP). Taking a cue from states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, it, however, stated that the MSP would mean the “maximum price inclusive of seed value, license fee, trade margin and local taxes or duties, at which the cotton seeds or transgenic varieties of cotton seeds are sold to the farmers”.
States of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh had earlier put a cap on prices of Bt cotton seeds including the “trait fee” charged by the US-based multinational Monsanto which has proprietary rights over the gene (Bacillus thuringiensis) that accords the Bt cotton its pest-resistant property. The move could hit Monsanto hard. The agri-biotech major, along with Maharashtra-based Mahyco, is currently fighting “non-payment of around Rs 450 crores” in royalty fees (trait value) by nine Bt cotton seed manufacturers. The current price of Bt cotton seeds to farmers, as fixed by the Maharashtra government, is around Rs 900 per packet.
“For the purpose of fixing maximum sale price, the government may constitute a committee under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Seed) and controller, department of agriculture, cooperation and farmers welfare to recommend maximum sale price of cotton seed after taking into consideration the components of seed value, license fee which includes one time and recurring royalty (trait value), trade margins and other taxes. The committee may take inputs from such persons or associations or authority, as may be necessary for working out the maximum sale price of the cotton seed,” according to the notification.
Agricoop.nic.in
Vadim Solovyov, the Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on constitutional legislation and state construction and a member of the Communist Party has said to have written to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov to take action against the unofficial ban on the import of Turkish fabrics and textile products into Russia.
On the other hand, the Deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Victor Evtukhov recently announced that such ban could be formally established for Turkish textile products after Turkey attacked Russian SU-24 on November 24, 2015. The Department already proposed to ban the import of 70-80 per cent of light industry goods from Turkey. This may create problems to international retailers, producing clothing in Turkey for Russia, including brands like Zara, Mango, Lacoste and Adidas.
According to official statistics, Turkey's ready-to-wear textile exports declined by 10.3 per cent year on year in the first 11 months of 2015, totaling $15.6 billion. Following the jet crisis, total volume of Turkish exports decreased by 8.6 per cent to $132 billion between January and November, compared to the same period a year ago.
With an aim to train skilled workforce for the rapidly growing export and domestic sectors of the apparel industry and upgrade the technical skills to improve quality, productivity and efficiency Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC) recently introduced ‘Shram Bhawan’ in Gangtok.
Pawan Chamling, Chief Minister of Sikkim inaugurated the centre at Sokeythang, Gangtok. The inaugural function was attended by Darlie Koshy DG & CEO ATDC & IAM in the presence of D.D Bhutia, Minister, Department of Labour, Govt of Sikkim, and K. Jayakumar, Principal Secretary, Labour & Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Department.
ATDC has signed an MoU with Labour & Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Department for one year. The MoU was signed between Darlie Koshy, DG&CEO, ATDC & IAM and K. Jayakumar, Principal Secretary, Labour & Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Department. Under this MoU Labour & Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Department will sponsor 300 students of ATDC. The new centre is well equipped with sewing machines labs, CAD lab for computerised pattern making, computer embroidery machine, and resource centre. It will offer short term programs under ISDS, MOT, GOI (ATDC-SMART) for 300 hours.
Pawan Chamling, distributed the ATDC Tool kits to the students and he even took keen interest in the technologically advanced machines and the training systems and conferred recognition of the state government to ATDC.
www.atdcindia.co.in
Gujarat government recently announced 14 per cent rise in minimum support price (MSP) for cotton. The move is not welcomed by the farmers who were expected to benefit from the same. After losing recent local body elections to Congress in the rural areas, the BJP-led state government announced a bonus of Rs 110 per 20 kg on cotton to please the farmers.
However, even after getting the bonus, MSP would be Rs 920 per 20 kg, up to six per cent less than the market price of Rs 950-980. Also the government’s move is quite delayed since many farmers have already sold their cotton in the month of October, the beginning of the season. The state government's Rs 110 per 20 kg bonus would be above the Centre's MSP of Rs 810 for the cotton year (October-September) 2015-16. Union government had hiked its MSP by Rs 10 per 20 kg this year.
In September, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), a farmers' organisation had asked for financial assistance for farmers in Gujarat. But now it is displeased since the announcement was made after farmers sold their produce at lower prices. According to industry sources, 40 per cent of the season's crop has already arrived in the market. Those who have holding capacity are expecting Rs 1,100 per 20 kg for raw cotton as there is a fear of crop damage due to pest.
Gujarat government will pay the bonus only on Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) procurement. Due to low MSP, the state-owned CCI has procured only 5,000 bales this year. Last year, CCI had purchased about 650,000 bales cotton from Gujarat.
Cotcorp.gov.in
Sighting rising number of orders coming from Amritsar, Punjab, A.T.E. and Karl Mayer have opened a new booking office in the region. Considered as important textile centres of the country, Amritsar has witnessed consistent growth in the traditional warp knitting sector over the last five decades. There are around 2,000 warp knitting machines in the region, and a majority of players are using the Karl Mayer and Liba machines. Karl Mayer has recently booked several orders in the area.
Now through its new office, the company would support their customers with world-class technology solutions, prompt service, spare parts, and training on warp knitting technology. According to Gurudas Aras, Director, A.T.E. Enterprises, A.T.E.’s presence in Amritsar comes in response to the growing textile sector in general and the warp knitting sector in particular in this area. A.T.E. is a one-window solution provider across the textile value chain, and with this new set-up, it will be able to support the customers in the region.
Karl Mayer has always been at the forefront of bringing the best technological innovations to customers in a way that makes life simpler for them, according Kevin Socha, Managing Director, Karl Mayer Hong Kong.
www.karlmayer.com
OGTC organized 11th International Conference on Apparel & Home Textiles on October 31, 2015 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. 354 delegates from the industry, academics and research institutes attended the event. Total six papers were presented in the pre-lunch session followed by six workshops .
The session commenced with R C Kesar, Director General OGTC elabotaing on the theme of the conference. Prashant Agarwal, CEO, Wazir Advisors chaired the session. Nidhi Sood of Madura Clothing presented a paper on People Engagement Practices and Reward and Recognition Systems and Surender Jain on Turnaround Story- Different Facets.
Aisshvarya S. Shah, CEO and Chief Trainer Work Senses, Chennai in her presentation questioned the industry on the goals set for their company and how they look at human resource as a part of this goal. She said “We have to link HR and training to profitability. The efforts to people management in the garment industry have not been great in the past. What is required was not ‘policing’ of workers but ‘performance management’, which is an HR job. But how many companies look at ROI for investments made in people-management?”
In the post tea session Mr. A.N. Singh presented a paper on Value Creation for Customers in Apparel Industry, Mr. Navin Chopra, Aglie Group presented a paper on New Developments in the space of Quality in Indian context and its relevance to Garment Industry and Dr. Archana Gandhi, NIFT presented a paper on Merchandising- Pre and Post Manufacturing.
In this interesting session the debate veered around whether the target of the company should be on ‘value creation’ or ‘money creation’… while AN Singh, a well-known consultant argued that if a company focused on value, profits would follow automatically; Navin Chopra of Aglie Group countered that without the motivation of money, how would anyone even want to work. Both thoughts garnered interest, though both agreed that the goal in both cases was to run a successful business that was responsive to buyer’s demand.
It was stressed by all speakers that old ways of doing business could not carry the industry forward and it was imperative to innovate and adopt new approaches. Even educational institutes were under fire, with many in the audience requesting a re-look at how students were being prepared for the industry.
Lal Sudhakaran, Head MGE Madura Clothing chaired the session on Turnaround- (Focus-Planning). Placing significant importance on the challenging details of the production floor, the conference featured two insightful sessions on pre-production planning and style changeovers. The first session focusing on planning was delivered by Surender Jain and Bhavesh from Wazir Advisors. The session speakers outlined on the tenets of cost and quality for optimum planning, and further detailed on capacity allocation based on deliveries through an activity which required the volunteers to plan four lines for an order of 64,000 bottoms.
The 2nd workshop was held on Understanding of Buyer’s Perspective and Ownership session chaired by Hemant Sagar, MD & CEO Lecoanet Hemant India. The presentation was made by Megha Awasthy, Section Head – Leather Accessories, Lecoanet Hemant, and Aditya Singhal, Founder, IML Jeans. This session focused on how the companies could use merchandising to make their mark in this bustling trade. Megha, through her presentation encouraged the merchandisers to proactively approach the buyers by bringing flexibility and agility in the processes through a few simple steps like minimizing the buyer’s involvement in the whole process at the manufacturer’s facility. After explaining the importance of the customer’s point of view in the process of merchandising, she requested Hemant to explain the buyer’s point of view and Aditya to explain the manufacturer’s point of view on implementing their feedback in the process.
The 3rd workshop, chaired by Rajesh Bheda, CEO, Rajesh Bheda Consultancy, on Turnaround-(Focus-Execution) dwelled on operational excellence. Session speakers Surender and Abhishek Kapoor from Wazir Advisors elaborated on two parameters of operational excellence, namely learning curve and SMED for picking up the peak efficiencies faster and reducing our start-up losses. The 4th workshop, which was chaired by Archana Gandhi, Associate Professor, NIFT Delhi, Anup Gulati, Consultant, NSDC, said rather than the traditional and conventional jargons of merchandising being discussed, the less explored aspects of strengthening a merchandising team were looked upon.
In the HR workshop and CSR Best Practices. Maj Gen (Retd.) N.K. Dhir, Director Alphabet Teletec Chaired the session. Three learned speakers in the field of HR from industry made thought provoking presentation and need to look human resources as assist to the company and not as a cost burden.
The 5th workshop was held on Finance Cost Management – Best Practices. Sanjay Gupta of Impulse chaired the session. Three eminent speakers from the industry in the field of finance made presentations. Finally Kesar informed that the theme of the conference Competitive Innovation attracted many case studies pertaining to manufacturing /HR activities. He announced that the 12th international conference on Apparel & Home Textiles 2016 will be held on October 15, 2016 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
www.ogtc.in
Century Textiles has allotted 10.18 million shares to two companies controlled by Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla. After conversion into equity shares, the allocation will raise the promoter group’s holding from 45.22 per cent to 50.21 per cent. Century Textiles is controlled by the BK Birla group. Century Textiles allotted 4.10 million shares to Aditya Marketing and Manufacturing and 6.08 million shares to IGH Holdings upon conversion of warrants. Both these companies are clubbed under promoter group companies.
In May last year, Century Textiles had issued 18.65 million warrants without disclosing the names of the companies. BK Birla, chairman of the group, wants his grandson Kumar Mangalam Birla to take over his flagship Century Textiles, which has interests in cement, rayon and paper.
Century Textiles had in October appointed Kumar Mangalam Birla as vice-chairman. Kumar Mangalam Birla has been consolidating his control over Century Textiles in the past few years. The huge real estate holdings of Century Textiles in central Mumbai makes it the most valuable firm in the BK Birla group.
www.centurytextind.com/
Exports of readymade garments, pashmina and leather products from Nepal will have duty-free access to the US market. This facility will last up to 2025. It’s expected to give a new lease of life to the readymade garment industry in Nepal, which was on the verge of collapse since the expiry of the multi fiber agreement in January 2005.
The garment industry was Nepal’s top exporter one-and-a-half decades back. The country can now expect more investment and employment in the garment sector and factories that manufacture ancillary products. Nepali apparel entrepreneurs believe that the US market can help resurrect the garment industry. To be able to fully capitalise on preferential treatment extended by the US, apparel entrepreneurs have sought an export incentive of up to 10 per cent for five years, subsidised interest rates from banks and financial institutions and abundant supply of power in factories.
There were over 400 apparel factories across the country that provided employment to 4,50,000 people when garment export was at its peak in 2001. About 90 per cent of readymade garments produced in the country were exported to the US. Readymade garments then had a 20 per cent share in total exports. Their ranking slipped to fifth position in overall exports of 2014-15.
Sri Lanka’s largest apparel exporter Brandix, has bagged eight Presidential Export Awards at a ceremony. The Brandix Group was honoured for its substantial contribution to the country’s economy. Brandix had been recognised earlier as the Lankan Exporter of the Year in 2012 and 2013. Theu also got the ‘Best Exporter in the Apparel Sector’ award in 2012 and 2013. It has earned four Special Awards for being the Highest Net Foreign Exchange Earner and the Highest Employment Provider in the export industry in 2012 and 2013.
The company has been acknowledged as one of the biggest winners across all sectors as it was conferred with various awards by the President Maithripala Sirisena and senior ministers of the government at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre recently. The event was organised after a lapse of several years by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) that recognised export performances in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
With these eight Presidential Export Awards the tally for Brandix Group now adds up to 14 awards for exports that the group has earned over the years. The journey began in 2003 when it bagged the National Awards for Export Excellence (NAEE), and since then Brandix has been persistently winning various awards. The company was ranked first as Sri Lanka’s most outstanding exporter and best in the apparel sector by the Export Development Board in 2003.
The trends for the 2017 Spring/Summer preview was finalised recently at the View Premium Selection View in Munich. New ideas by international weavers and findings suppliers showcased more than 300 pre-collections for summer. A significant rise in the number of Italian collections was recorded. Manufacturers like Achille Pinto, Gratacós, Serates, Blue Line, Polo Divisione Tessuti, Miroglio, Eton Textile, Cabalane and Ormezzano were amongst the new exhibitors. While, design teams from brands like Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Marc O’Polo and Baldessarini also visited.
View assists to formulate a platform for an intensive interexchange between industry and brands that is relevant for the overall development and a robust season’s start. The event attracted middle market brands like C&A and Peek & Cloppenburg along with premium brands. Sebastian Klinder, MD of View and Munich Fabric Start opined that the quality of View's offerings at this early date was highly appreciated by brands as textile innovations continue to evolve. Great care is taken in portfolio selection to present the collection in an innovative way.
Among the trends that emerged were a range of varied prints including graphic looks, ethical prints, stripes and new tweeds with mixture of techniques, such as a structured fond complemented with printed or embroidered motifs were seen. At Candiani Denim, the classical blue denim sees a return over the perished vintage character. Norbert Hinderberger from Candiani Denim acknowledged that with retail development, the consumer spends less for fashion that makes us think. Raw to destroyed denim look continues undisturbed in the market. Materials like silk and linen were seen in a natural look. Different shades of blue and pastel colours were the trend.
The entire collection is likely to be entrusted at the Munich Fabric Start/Blue zone, to be held from 2-4 February, 2016.
