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In 2018, Sri Lanka’s earnings from apparel exports grew 3.6 per cent from the year before. About 80 per cent of its production is shipped to Europe, and the remainder to the United States. Garments are currently Sri Lanka’s leading exports.
HSBC, Sri Lanka’s largest bank, and the environmental group International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are working together to create a cohesive low-carbon development transition strategy for the country’s garment industry. With this project, HSBC is moving beyond transactional corporate social responsibility to more of a knowledge-based contribution that benefits the communities, the environment and the country at large.
The apparel industry is a critical income earner for Sri Lanka, and supporting its transition into greener development is imperative for the growth and long-term stability of the industry. Sri Lanka’s apparel exports have made a significant impact on American, European and other major export markets around the globe. The country’s target is to reach $ 8 billion in exports by 2025. Apparels are Sri Lanka’s biggest exports to the EU. Almost 90 per cent of Sri Lankan exports to the EU are exported under GSP Plus or with zero duty. The GSP Plus scheme encourages increased value addition within Sri Lanka and thereby promotes backward integration, resulting in the setting up of new industries, and creating new employment opportunities in the country.
Leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), has demanded immediate publication of the revised Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) to help the sector avoid costly western prescriptions further. They also disagreed with the possibilities of achieving the target of $50 billion in export earnings from the readymade garment (RMG) sector by 2021.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse, the industry had to invest a huge amount of money to implement the safety measures in line with the prescriptions of the western retailers' platforms - Accord and Alliance - that missed the national context.
As a result, the prescription disrupts and ends up being super expensive for the sector. During the last six years, $ 1.5 billion has been invested in installing the equipments only for fire safety. World class fire hydrant system and fire alarms have been installed but those are not working due to humidity. These leaders suggested that the $50 billion export earnings target, fixed after the Rana Plaza building collapse, should be focused on value addition and retention as the number only creates confusion. Others sectors expected to develop resilience strategies for the supply chain of RMG in the country should also be incorporated into the study.
With a sharp decline in temperature Ludhiana has seen a rise in demand for winter wear. Manufacturers have received repeat orders to the extent of 15 percent. Fresh demand is expected to clear last year’s inventory lying with some manufacturers. They are also hopeful of clearing inventory. Currently, a majority of the units in Ludhiana work as vendors for other manufacturers. With repeat orders in hand, many manufacturers have delayed production for summer, which normally starts in the first week of December.
Having received good response from customers in October and November, big brands, which outsource finished products from the Ludhiana-based industry, have already placed repeat orders in November itself. The increase in demand from the domestic market, especially for winter wear, has provided a cushion to the slowdown in the exports market. Manufacturers feel winter may extend till March this year.
Ludhiana accounts for over 90 per cent of the total winter wear production in the country. Knitwear constitutes around 50 per cent of the domestic apparel market in India. There are around 12,000 units in Ludhiana, a majority of them in the micro, small and medium category who are engaged in the production of winter wear. The winter wear category comprises sweaters, hoodies, sweat shirts, jackets, shawls, cardigans and trousers.
As per All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), this year, Pakistan will have to import least 6 million bales of cotton almost double what it imported last financial year. Erratic weather has crippled Pakistan’s cotton sector, resulting in lost revenue and jobs that could cost the economy more than $3 billion by the end of the fiscal year in June 2020, industry experts have warned.
Heavy rains and high temperatures during the whole of the cotton-growing season from April to September have severely damaged the crop in the country which has strained its entire textile industry.
Most of Pakistan’s cotton is grown in the southern part of Punjab province which experienced unexpectedly high temperatures in August and September, even at night. The rest is mainly cultivated in Sindh province in the southeast.
The state-run Central Cotton Research Institute in Multan has revealed that together, the heavy rains and dry spells have destroyed over a third of the country’s expected cotton harvest.
Bangladesh’s readymade garment exports fell over six per cent in the past five months of the fiscal year. The garment sector’s contribution to the GDP is only 11 per cent, clearly indicating very little value addition. Reasons behind the garment sector’s lower growth include economic recession around the world and pressure from the nation’s currency.
Bangladesh has a target of exporting apparel products worth $50 billion by 2021 but that target looks unattainable because of low valuation and declining global trade. The second biggest apparel exporter globally, the Bangladesh garment manufacturing sector is not having the best of times lately. In the last seven months, 59 garment factories have gone out of business while around 25,900 workers have lost their jobs. Most garment factories are small and medium enterprises and they fail to maintain compliance strictly and pay their workers under the new wage structure. While the country’s apparel exports have taken a hit in recent months those of its competitors are on the rise. The readymade garment sector accounts for more than 80 per cent of the country’s annual export earnings. But the country has lost its market share in global apparel exports by 0.1 percentage point to 6.4 per cent.
Clothing and footwear brands and retailers have dramatically increased their disclosure of information about their supply chains in the past three years. Dozens of brands and retailers are publicly disclosing information about their supplier factories. This has become a widely accepted step toward better identifying and addressing labor abuses in garment supply chains.
Transparency is not a panacea for labor rights abuses but is critical for a business that describes itself as ethical and sustainable. Supplier transparency is a powerful tool that promotes corporate accountability for garment workers’ rights in global supply chains. It is proof that a company knows where its products are made and also allows workers and labor and human rights advocates to alert the company to rights abuses in supplier factories. Information about brands’ supplier factories can help workers gain faster access to redress for human rights abuses.
The US-based Fair Labor Association has taken significant steps to drive supply chain transparency among members. The Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textiles has not made supply chain transparency of individual members a condition of membership but requires its members to disclose information about their supplier factories. The United Kingdom Ethical Trading Initiative and the Fair Wear Foundation have taken incremental steps to improve supply chain transparency of their members.
For the third quarter American Eagle Outfitters’ revenue increased six per cent. Same-store sales climbed five per cent. Inventories increased nine per cent. Weak demand in some clothing categories led to price markdowns.
American Eagle Outfitters is known for stylishly relaxed clothing like jeans and athletic apparel. American Eagle Outfitters plans to accelerate its sustainability improvements and become carbon neutral by 2030. The company is committed to carbon reduction, water reduction and the use of more sustainable raw materials. AEO focuses on youth and its optimism toward the future, so building a better world for generations to come is fundamental to its values and purpose. It pledges to accelerate sustainability improvements across its entire organization, and throughout the supply chain, holding itself accountable through the adoption of science-based targets. As a leading retailer, it is dedicated to working across the industry to create systemic changes in garment manufacturing.
Apparel retailers in the US are suffering from a generally grim environment for brick-and-mortar players for several reasons, including a decline in shopping mall foot traffic. US online retail sales jumped 15 per cent last year from the previous year, while retail sales in stores grew only 3.7 per cent. Also consumers own so much clothing that purchases have dropped.
Pakistan’s share of textile and clothing exports in global trade has dropped from 2.2 per cent to 1.7 per cent. Prospective investors are reluctant to make new investment decisions due to the high cost of doing business and the textile industry has lost its technological advantage over its global and regional competitors.
The industry feels a five-year policy for textiles and clothing to attract long term investment will help. Another suggestion is an extension of the duty drawback scheme for five years and an increase in drawbacks every year by one per cent for garments (up to 12 per cent) and made-ups (up to ten per cent). Direct and indirect exporters hope for a long term finance facility for building infrastructure in addition to existing schemes for plant and machinery. Skill enhancement facilities in collaboration with industry and amendments in labor laws to encourage productivity and implementation of social standards are also awaited. Fairtrade, organic and/or responsible concepts in addition to complying with common sustainability standards and certification are seen as giving a competitive edge in Europe and easing market entry. Another area is value addition in producing artificial leather clothing. Another plan is to attract more buying houses to Pakistan.
Artificial intelligence in fashion market is growing at 36.9 per cent globally. Factors such as the availability of massive amounts of data due to increasing proliferation of digital services across the globe, and real time consumer behavior insights and increased operational efficiency are driving the adoption of AI in the fashion industry.
AI integration in fashion plays a crucial role in sales, marketing, and customer-focused purposes. Initial adopters point towards the key impact of technology in improving customer experience and decent growth in company revenue. Elevated customer experience helps the retailer crack entirely new tactics of customer engagement and communication. With AI integration, retailers can precisely spot the customers’ expected needs at precise times and offer the appropriate product to gain a competitive advantage. Several fashion brands are leveraging chatbot to improve the customer experience; Tommy Hilfiger's Facebook Messenger chatbot offers consumers a custom-made and interactive shopping experience than customary online shopping.
Artificial intelligence in the fashion market on the basis of deployment is segmented into cloud and on-premise. Cloud segment leads artificial intelligence in the fashion market. The market for artificial intelligence in fashion by application is further segmented into product recommendation, virtual assistant, product search and discovery, creative designing and trend forecasting, customer relationship management, and others.
An hour-long insightful discussion with Dr. Kater Hake, Vice President for agricultural and environmental research at Cary-based Cotton Incorporated during TexSnips revealed some of the successful management practices adopted by the Australian cotton sector.
Australian production this year for the season ending in March 2020 is estimated to range from 0.7 million to 1.3 million bales. While the quantity is significantly down, quality seems to fall within the expected range. As close to all cotton produced is exported predominantly to Asian countries, quality plays a significant role, with tight range in micronaire.
With increasing labor costs, Australian cotton farmers are effectively utilizing robotics. Hake pointed out that he had seen herbicide sprayer robots that have weather signaling systems in them. The sprayer senses wind directions and temperature and switches on and off enabling good environmental stewardship. As the Australian crop is irrigated, due to government restrictions in water usage, planting is limited to water availability during the growing season.
Australia has no oil crusher for oil; hence, all cottonseed goes to feeding cattle. Interestingly, 25% of the cattle diet is cottonseed, which enriches the quality of meat, catering to high quality export. Resistance management of Bt traits has helped the industry to have control bollworms. While the resistance issue is not a serious concern in West Texas, other parts of the United States face this situation. Some of the agricultural practices such as shallow tillage to disrupt the pupae is helping the Australian farmers, stated Hake.
As the amount of available land in Australia for cotton is limited, with more acreage for cotton here, United States is still the largest and reliable supplier of cotton in the export market. However, cotton growing is expanding to the north and south of traditional growing areas in New South Wales and Queensland, The production systems between the United States and Australia are similar and the two countries can learn and help each other to move the industry forward observed Hake.
