FW
The US seed company Monsanto is free to leave India if it does not want to lower prices of genetically modified cotton seeds as directed by the government, a minister commented recently, indicating that the rift between New Delhi and the firm is widening. The comments come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist government expects to develop its own genetically modified (GM) cotton varieties early next year to end Monsanto's dominance; it controls over 90 per cent of cotton seed supply.
According to experts, new technologies are critical to lifting India's poor farm productivity, although even if India did develop a home-grown GM cotton variety in 2017, it would struggle to sustain a programme that needs to refresh seeds every decade or so. The introduction of Monsanto's GM cotton seeds in 2002 helped turn India into the biggest producer of the fiber, while other crops like pulses continue to suffer as transgenic food is banned and local research has stalled.
Despite the gains GM cotton brought for more than 7 million cotton farmers in India, some of them and their associations, including one affiliated to Modi's ruling party that promotes self-reliance, have complained Monsanto overprices its products.
Textile maker Alok Industries' resolution for its lenders to convert loans into controlling equity has been forestalled by a court order until a winding-up petition by HSBC is worked out. Alok had taken the decision as part of a corporate debt restructuring.
However HSBC's petition filed on behalf of a consortium of unsecured lenders, led by VTB Capital, is pending. It concerns Alok’s liquidation and settlement of outstanding dues, part of a loan the company had taken. The matter has been adjourned till March 22 in the hope that the involved parties will come to an agreement, allowing the takeover process to continue.
In January, a joint forum of 25 banks led by State Bank of India that had loaned around Rs 13,000 crores to Alok had decided to convert loans into a 65 per cent equity stake. SBI Capital Markets was mandated to run a formal auction process to sell the core businesses as a whole or in parts. However, this process has no proposals for unsecured lenders though it accounts for repayment of its secured lenders, mostly public sector banks.
The court's decision to stop lender action may set a precedent. In several similar pending cases, secured lenders are engaging with unsecured lenders out of court to arrive at haircut ratios and repayment schemes because court proceedings could hold up repayment for all concerned.
It maybe recalled PE funds TPG Capital Management and KKR & Co LP are competing with domestic textile companies Vardhman Group, Trident and a brand new special situations joint venture between Ajay Piramal Group and Brescon to take control of debt-ridden Alok Industries.
The potential suitors are believed to be keen on individual assets than taking control of the listed Alok Industries. Some have expressed their discomfort about governance quality, given that the company's statutory auditor Delloitte Haskins & Sells LLP quit last November within five months of coming on board.
www.alokind.com/
German retailers are supporting sustainable development of Myanmar’s textile industry. The partnership will initially run for three years. The core of the project is the creation of structures which enable a sustainable textile production with fair working conditions. Through training and seminars local textile producers will be encouraged to improve their standards, productivity and product quality.
Economic and development cooperation will work together to improve the supply chain’s social standards. The ultimate aim is to help Myanmar’s garment industry compete in the global market.
Myanmar has not only ambitious growth targets for its textile industry but wants to make this growth sustainable. By 2024, the textile industry in Myanmar is targeting a revenue of $10 billion. Currently exports of the textile industry are at about $1.8 billion.
Germany is Myanmar’s principal trading partner in the European Union. Germany’s main imports from Myanmar are garments and its principal exports to Myanmar are machinery, data processing equipment, electrical and optical goods, chemical products, motor vehicles and vehicle parts and pharmaceutical products. Of Myanmar’s garment exports, woven garments have driven the growth of exports while exports of knit products have been flat over the years.
A British newspaper bitterly criticised German retail giant Lidl recently for selling garments produced in Bangladesh at prices that were too low. Lidl recently launched a 58-piece denim collection, which includes women's jeggings priced at less than 6 pounds (around $8.60) a piece, the newspaper said in its report published on March 13.
‘Lidl is a cheap buyer. The company does not want to increase the prices. It always puts pressure on the garment makers for downward prices,’ allegedly said a supplier of garment items to Lidl in Bangladesh, seeking anonymity. It is surprising that customers in even Germany and the UK can buy a pair of denim pants at Lidl stores at prices cheaper than any store in Dhaka.
The newspaper said the campaign hit more than 600 UK stores last week, as part of Lidl's 'We Love Denim' promotion. The report pointed out that the reason the retailer could sell them so cheaply was because they were made in Bangladesh, where the minimum hourly wage for a garment worker is 23 pence, or about 48 pounds a month (roughly $69).
Lidl has made no secret of its sourcing in Bangladesh. In fact, Markus Reinken, the company's buying director, spoke last September of their plans to increase apparel orders from the Asian nation by 20 per cent because other countries had become too expensive due to higher production costs and a shortage of workers.
Ethiopia’s one of the largest vertically integrated textile company, Almeda Textile which supplies apparel to Sweden’s fast fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz has concluded its expansion that took place over the past six months in Adwa city to increase its fabric production capacity by 100 per cent.
Focused on mainly replacing machinery with the latest products, the expansion is the first of three stages. The company imported Rieter brand C-70 carding machines, a New Draw Frame finisher machine and an Open End R-35 from Germany and Switzerland, as well as a Muratec winding machine from Japan. The new machinery saves energy and takes lesser time to power on and off. They are easy to manage and enhance their productivity, said Tekelemariam Tesfu, general manager of the factory.
Spinning, the production of thread, which used to yield 20,000kg per day, will now increase five-fold. This will enable the company to fulfill its own production requirements, and also look for export opportunities.
For the remaining production processes, resources and capacity will be better utilized. Because of the increase in the production at the spinning stage, the weaving and fabric making will also increase, making use of existing machinery for the latter two. Weaving will reach 32,000m of textile roll from the former output of 24,000m a day - an increase of 33pc; while the fabric making will be doubled to 7,000kg.
Pakistan’s cotton production has fallen short by 4.7 million bales year-on-year during this season. There are issues facing the agriculture sector in general and cotton crop in particular in Pakistan.
Cotton growers want all taxes on agricultural inputs, including general sales tax, eliminated, to ensure growers get a good price for their produce. They also want the export subsidy on sugar to go and regulatory duty to be imposed on sugar imports. They feel there should be a ban on sugarcane growing in cotton areas.
Inferior quality seed is seen as a major reason for the crop failure. Growers want an assured supply of certified seeds. Above all they want a fair price. There are concerns the free market policy for agriculture produce is allowing easy access to cotton and other farm produce from across the border which is hurting growers. Growers feel if they can buy inputs and sell their farm produce at world prices they would be able to produce more and bring in prosperity for themselves and others.
An exportable surplus would mean that growers can get an international price for their produce and keep cultivating more and more cotton. Growers feel a strong marketing network would help them raise production.
India’s readymade garment industry will continue to get duty benefits till 2019 in the EU markets under the European Union's scheme of generalised tariff preferences. The EU has recently announced its scheme of generalised tariff preferences for the next three years (2017-19). GSP was scheduled to end on December 31, 2016.
Under the scheme, India's readymade garment sector will continue to enjoy 20 per cent duty preference on exports for the next three years in EU markets. The EU is India’s largest market for textiles. Demand from Europe accounts for almost 41 per cent of the country’s garment exports.
Currently, while Indian mills have to bear an export duty of 9.6 per cent for supplies to Europe, those in competing countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan have zero-duty access to that market. Indian apparel exporters work on very thin margins. But now, with the availability of tariff preferences and with Chinese textiles becoming uncompetitive due to rising labor costs and Bangladeshi textiles facing quality issues, they are hopeful that exports from India can surge.
What textile exporters are looking forward to is a rate subvention of three or four per cent. This, they feel, can help them compete in the export market better.
India’s cotton output for the 2015-16 season, beginning October 2015, has been estimated at 345 lakh bales. Adding last season’s surplus, the total cotton supply would be 432.60 lakh bales for the season. Of this, domestic consumption is projected at 304 lakh bales, which will leave a surplus of 128.60 lakh bales.
Up to February end, cotton arrival is estimated at 245 lakh bales, which is 11.31 per cent lower than 276.25 lakh bales of arrival during the same period last season. The lower arrival this season indicates a lower crop, and if the trend continues, the estimate will have to be further revised downwards.
Pest attack in parts of Punjab and Haryana and drought for the second consecutive year in some areas have reduced cotton yields this season. Nevertheless India is the largest cotton producer in the world. Cotton production in China and the US has been estimated to be lower by 13.3 per cent and 17.7 per cent respectively than that in the previous season.
Pakistan has replaced Bangladesh to emerge as the largest buyer of Indian cotton in the October-December 2015 quarter. The second biggest buyer of Indian cotton is Bangladesh.
With increasing internet penetration in China (over 53 per cent of the total 1.37 billion population), visits to shopping malls have been digitised for the convenience of millennial, the drivers of online shopping, who admit to impulsive shopping online a trend that mirrors in India as well.
The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, one of the world's largest retailers, has been celebrating the country's ability to buy in abundance through its shopping fests since 2009.
Alibaba Group Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tung says that festivals are not just about offering consumer’s products at great prices, but are platforms for brands to explore newer and more innovative ways of engaging with people. It is to showcase how technology presents an opportunity for consumer engagement.
The company has brought in "new retail", which is equipping brick and mortar stores with technological mediums, allowing buyers to scan product barcodes for information about them, pay for them digitally, and even have them delivered at home.
Through its 11.11 shopping festival, held on November 11 each year on Singles' Day, the company has turned the country's purchases into a spectacle for the world.
The online shopping festivals, particularly, have succeeded in turning non-believers in digital purchasing into believers who are eager to grab the deals on offer.
India's leading e-tailerFlipkart and Amazon, along with other digital platforms, have managed to get Indians not just from metros, but also from smaller towns to go on an online shopping spree largely through their shopping festivals.
The average Indian shopper, who was known to put his/her money on a product -- that too a brand he or she has known for long -- only after making a store visit, was suddenly seen waiting for Big Billion Day (Flipkart's online sales event) or Amazon's Great Indian Festival to purchase a mobile phone.
From kitchen knives, plastic containers, televisions, refrigerators to smart phones and even gold and diamond jewellery, Indians have now turned themselves into devoted digital consumers who boldly shop for their daily needs, luxuries and fancies online.
H&M is joining forces with artist M.I.A. for the fashion retailer's latest sustainable campaign, World Recycle Week, an ambitious garment collecting movement. Starting from April 18 to 24, H&M, the first fashion company to launch a global garment collecting programme, aims to collect 1,000 tons of unwanted garments from customers in its more than 3,600 stores worldwide.
This is part of H&M's goal to close the loop in fashion by recycling garments to create reusable textile fibers. To help raise awareness, M.I.A. has filmed an exclusive new video for H&M highlighting the environmental impact of clothing going into landfills around the world. The video will debut on 11 April at hm.com.
H&M intends to create a viral campaign to generate a global recycling movement to mark the first ever World Recycle Week. The video, starring M.I.A., features a diverse supporting cast including models, actors, dancers, and social media mavens, who will take to their social channels leading up to World Recycle Week, encouraging everyone to participate in ‘#HM rehaul’ video call to action.
The term ‘rehaul’ is being exclusively used as the antithesis to a blogger haul video, which typically show items recently purchased. #HMrehaul videos will exhibit customers around the world filming the garments they intend to recycle followed by a drop off at their local H&M store's collection bin, available in every store worldwide.
