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Ethiopia’s textile industry is fast catching up with the likes of Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and other Far East countries. The prospects of advancing to a medium level of industrialization are within sight. Ethiopia with a young labor force of 45 million people has a huge potential in the manufacturing sector. The annual manufacturing growth which is currently 25 per cent is projected to increase gross domestic product fourfold and its share in exports to 50 per cent.
Buoyed by medium term prospects for growth, textile and apparel companies are all set to expand their operations. The flow of foreign direct investment into the country over the six months since last June has risen 22 per cent compared to the same period the previous year. Half a dozen textile parks have either become operational or are under construction.
Eighteen leading apparel and textile companies from the US, China, India, Sri Lanka and six local manufacturers have set up factories at an industrial park in Hawassa. This is a state-of-the-art park. Spread over 1.3 million square meters, it has been designed to employ 60,000 people at full capacity and generate export revenue amounting to a billion dollars. It has 37 factory sheds and its own renewable electricity source. It also employs zero liquid discharge, enabling it to recycle 90 per cent of sewage disposal.
Bangladesh commerce minister Tofail Ahmed has sought duty-free benefit from Thailand for 36 more products, including garments and medicine. Currently, Thailand provides duty-free access to 6,998 Bangladeshi items. However, garments that account for 81 per cent of Bangladesh's total exports are not on the list of these products.
In 2016-17, Bangladesh exported products worth $48.57 million to Thailand and imported products worth $781.6 million from the country, according to the commerce ministry. Meanwhile Thailand has expressed a keen interest to invest in Bangladesh's infrastructure, power, energy and other potential sectors.
The Indian textile sector contributes 16 per cent to the country's GDP. But when only 16 per cent of the GDP comes from manufacturing, it is not enough for a sustainable economy. Thus it is necessary to scale up that contribution.
Foreign direct investment is being encouraged in the textile sector, which has the potential to create millions of jobs. The textile sector is capable of strengthening the rural economy and creating large-scale employment. However, the Indian textile industry is over-dependent on the European Union and the US for exports. But when the season goes away in those markets, there aren’t enough orders. The sector doesn't have markets in other parts of the world. So it is exploring new markets like Latin America and Australia for Indian fabrics, garments and apparels in order to boost exports.
Efforts are on to make khadi a globally accepted garment. A survey in 21 overseas markets revealed, khadi was the most recalled Indian brand, along with yoga. The industry wants a uniform textile policy across the country. This is seen as necessary since if one state offers subsidies, textile units in other parts shut down and shift to that state. India aims at doubling the annual revenue of the textile industry in the country by 2025.
Even nine years after the Rana Plaza factory collapse that killed 1,138 textile workers in Bangladesh, the safety regulation Accord has found only one taker – Tally Weij, which signed up with Accord in 2014. Another Swiss retailer Coop, which sells various brands of clothing and soft furnishings, procures its few own-label textiles from a handful of suppliers in Bangladesh and takes the responsibility for implementing sustainability standards directly. Similarly, Swiss outdoor label Mammut has built up a substantial control and management system over the past 10 years and is therefore, not a part of Accord.
Accord is the world’s first legally binding measure to improve workplace safety for garment workers. Under this agreement, inspection teams have screened over 1,600 factories and identified more than 118,500 dangers related to fire safety, electrical installations and structural issues.
Suri alpacas could be key in starting a booming natural fiber industry in New Zealand. These animals produce a rare fiber which does not need to be dyed. They are unlike their woolly counterparts, the more common alpaca, which has a sheep-like coat. The fiber is soft and is one of the rarest specialist fibers. It comes in 21 colors from shades of white to fawn.
There is expected to be a rise in demand for alpaca in the high-end fashion industry as people move away from synthetic fibers. Peru, the world's top alpaca fiber producer, supplies to international markets, mainly to Asia, the United States and Europe.
Peru currently holds 80 per cent of the world’s alpaca production. Alpaca-breeding associations, shearers, processing, industrial and artisanal dressmaking companies as well as spinners and fashion designers comprise this sector, which has reached its highest peaks over the past two years. The Arequipa region in Peru, where 95 per cent of fiber is industrially transformed, holds all production chain elements within its territory from fleece harvesting, through processing and dyeing, to garment-manufacturing with added value.
Peruvian alpaca garments and textiles have already been introduced to 30 countries. Alpaca is one of the finest luxury fibers in the world. It’s incredibly soft, with a silky smooth texture.
Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufactures and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) will sign an MoU with HOGIAF, an association of young entrepreneurs in Netherlands to support them in getting partners in Netherlands, help exchange ideas, facilitate business development and strengthen business cooperation between the two countries. The MoU will promote and expand commutation and cooperation between Pakistan and Netherland's textile and apparel companies in a bid to realise common development of industries within ambit of the law in both countries.
HOGIAF is the largest cross-cultural and multi-sectoral association for entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, with departments all around the country. Its main purpose is to support entrepreneurs proactively in different fields of entrepreneurship
A breaking Peta video expose of the mohair industry in South Africa the source of more than 50 per cent of the world’s mohair has prompted several top international retailers to ban the material, and now, after receiving more than 18,000 letters from Peta supporters, Anthropologie, a brand of Philadelphia-based URBN, has announced that because of the potential for the mistreatment of animals, it won’t buy or produce mohair products as of March 2019.
Peta’s eyewitness expose, which is the first of its kind and encompasses 12 farms visited in January and February of this year, shows workers dragging goats by the horns and legs and lifting them off the floor by the tail, which could break their spines. Lambs, who were being shorn for the first time, cried out in fear. Afterward, workers threw them across the floor. Peta has asked law-enforcement agencies to investigate and file charges, as appropriate, for what the group believes are violations of South Africa’s Animals Protection Act, 1962.
Peta Director of Corporate Affairs Anne Brainard stated that gentle baby goats were left bleeding and crying in pain and fear on the shearing floor, all for mohair sweaters and scarves.
Farmers admitted that after shearing, many goats die from exposure to the cold wind and rain 40, 000 reportedly died of exposure across South Africa in just one weekend. Unwanted goats also died in agonizing ways: On one farm, a worker slowly cut the throats of fully conscious goats with a dull knife and then broke their necks, hacking one animal’s head right off. Other goats were hauled to a slaughterhouse, where they were electrically shocked, hung upside down, and slashed across the throat.
In banning mohair, Anthropologie joins Arcadia Group Gap, Athleta, H&M Group, Inditex apparel brands, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Express, and numerous other brands and retailers.
American Apparel will open a flagship store later this year, its first foray into brick-and-mortar shops after all its locations closed following a bankruptcy process. It was bought by Canadian Gildan Activewear last year. Since purchasing American Apparel, Gildan integrated the brand into its own low-cost manufacturing chain and focused at first on selling blank T-shirts and other items to wholesalers, which customize them for sports teams or events. It then relaunched the brand’s US website in August and expanded online sales to 200 countries last month.
One store will be opened and that will be a test model. It could be a franchise, and a few more could be opened. Before bankruptcy, American Apparel’s clothes were produced in the US. Now most of the clothes are made at either Gildan’s factories in Central America or sub-contracted elsewhere.
In its heyday, American Apparel, based in the US, ran 280 stores and five factories. Gildan’s main line of business is clothing such as T-shirts, underwear and socks. It competes with Hanesbrands and Fruit of the Loom. The company is merging different business units and bolstering distribution to strengthen its e-commerce business. American Apparel also has given Gildan a foothold in the lucrative niche of fashionable basics.
In major textile clusters like Coimbatore, Tirupur, Dindigul, migrant workers account for 30 to 90 per cent of the workforce. But textile mills face numerous problems in sourcing, mobilizing, recruiting and retaining migrant workers for a reasonable period.
To handle this situation, Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has started direct recruitment from Tripura. A job fair was organized by SIMA on April 25 to 26, 2018, at Agartala. Around 4,000 unemployed youth, both male and female, attended the job fair from various districts of Tripura. Eight member mills of SIMA participated in the fair and selected 1,635 candidates, out of which 1,371 were male and 264 were female candidates. This includes 20 physically challenged candidates.
This direct recruitment exercise is expected to help mills source the right candidates with a good background and enable the unemployed youth of Tripura find job opportunities in Tamil Nadu. SIMA will repeat the job fair exercise in Tripura and do a similar exercise in other states.
Tamil Nadu accounts for around 45 per cent of the spinning capacity, 70 per cent of the knitted garment manufacturing capacity and 22 per cent of the weaving capacity in India, and directly employs over 60 lakh people. However, the state started facing a labor shortage in the last decade due to an exponential growth in the manufacturing facility.
The 15th Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Indonesia and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), held from April 23-27, 2018 in Banten, was hampered by market access issues. The talks discussed a number of issues related to trade in goods, services and investments.
The CEPA negotiations with EFTA are expected to bring economic benefits, including wider market access, increased exports of goods and services, and investment. Cooperation programs are also expected to be obtained from EFTA member countries in particular to enhance Indonesia's competitiveness in Europe as well as the global market. In addition to market access, trade agreements can also aid the entry of Indonesian export products into the EU market.
