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Global leader in colour and specialty chemicals, Archroma has entered into a license agreement with Igcar, a Spain-based group producing optical brighteners for the paper, textile, detergent and coatings industry. As per the agreement, Igcar will have access to Archroma’s patented ‘improved optical brightening compositions; technology (patent family WO 2009/118247). This patent has been granted in many countries, and in Europe, it was confirmed after appeal.
The Optical Brightening Agent (OBA) technology developed by Archroma combines magnesium salts with optical brighteners. Papers treated with the patented process show enhanced brightness and whiteness levels, offering consumers a more pleasurable writing and printing experience. The patent covers mixed salts of most of the common paper optical brighteners with magnesium cations.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Textile and Industry and its attached departments are at loggerhead over a proposed legislation aimed at overriding multiple laws and ordinances under ministry’s administrative control, it is learnt. The government in February 2015 announced the Textile Policy (2014-19) envisaging doubling of textile exports from $13 billion to $26 billion over the next five years, and creation of 3 million new jobs.
One of the integral components of the policy was the introduction of new legislation to override multiple laws and ordinances under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textile Industry. The Ministry wants to club three laws including Pakistan Cotton Standards Institute (PCSI) Standardisation Ordinance 2002, Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) Cess Act 1923 and textile cess being collected for the National Textile University.
Currently PCSI, a department of the Ministry, collects Rs 20 per loom and one Rupee per spindle, PCCC collects cess of Rs 5 per bale and Textile Commissioner Organisation (TCO) collects textile cess @ Rs 50 per bale for the National Textile University for research work and developing quality cotton seed. Textile Ministry under the proposed law is considering clubbing all these laws into one, after which all the collections would be made by the Ministry itself and disbursed accordingly.
Kraig Biocraft, a developer of spider silk based fibers has created an efficient method of producing high strength silk by using innovative genetic engineering technologies. This silk demonstrates superior strength and elasticity and in some cases has higher strength and elasticity than native spider silks.
The company has achieved a series of scientific breakthroughs in the area of spider silk technology with implications for the global textile industry. It plans to open a subsidiary company in Vietnam and an advanced hybrid silk research and pilot production operation.
The venture will bring new technology and capability to Vietnam and give a boost to the existing silk and textile production infrastructure. Over the next several months, Kraig Labs plans to finalise the formation of the subsidiary, lease a facility, hire and train local staff, obtain permits, and begin cross breeding its silkworms with local commercial silkworm lines.
Kraig is the world leader in genetically engineered spider silk technologies. It applies genetic engineering spider silk technology to the domestic silkworm, which is one of the most efficient commercial producers of silk.
The silkworm is ideally suited to produce genetically engineered spider silk because it is already an efficient commercial and industrial producer of silk. Forty per cent of the caterpillar’s weight is devoted to the silk glands. The silk glands produce large volumes of protein, called fibroin, which are then spun into a composite protein thread.
www.kraiglabs.com/
South Africa has cut its 2015-16 cotton production forecast by about five per cent, bringing the total drop in full year output to an estimated 44 per cent as farmers switch to more profitable corn crops in a drought period. Farmers who irrigate their land opted to plant maize, because of the good maize price. That was why there was such a big drop from last year.
Maize is the local term for corn. The country’s agriculture sector contracted an annualized 14 per cent in the final quarter of 2015 amid the worst drought in a century and the commodity price rout. South Africa will probably produce 52,820 bales of cotton in the 2015-16 season while an estimated 900 bales will come from Swaziland.
The expectation for lower cotton output follows the trend in global production, which is on track to decline 15 per cent this season due to falling yields. Going forward, crop plantings may increase depending on the weather.
South Africa is working to revitalise its cotton textile and apparel industry, which has been damaged by the availability of inexpensive imported clothing, by focusing on sustainability.
The idea started with cotton farmers, who felt an urgent need to revive and expand employment opportunities through farming, and they thought that a focus on environmental and social responsibility would be a good way to rebuild.
"Undoubtedly, an industry’s consumer number in the billions is bound to have a significant environmental impact. In the run-up to last December’s UN Climate Conference, seven top fashion brands released a joint statement detailing their concerns for a warming world. Not only was climate change grave news for the planet, it was potentially awful for the bottom line."
A clothing company has to have a sustainability strategy that actually works. The question is whether or not there’s a way to truly produce clothing right. The textiles and apparel industry, accounts for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions. Producing a single ton of fabric can require up to 200 tons of water. The first ingredient in polyester is petroleum. Any way you spin it, apparel’s impact on the planet is less than ideal.
have Undoubtedly, an industry’s consumer number in the billions is bound to a significant environmental impact. In the run-up to last December’s UN Climate Conference, seven top fashion brands released a joint statement detailing their concerns for a warming world. Not only was climate change grave news for the planet, it was potentially awful for the bottom line. While not offering any new pledges , the declaration did momentarily swivel eyeballs on the industry’s commitments to - and awareness of - the problem at hand. Levi Strauss & Co., for example, a signatory to the declaration, reaffirmed its 2012 pledge to cut emissions by 25 per cent by 2020. And the company is indeed on target to meet its goal.
Sustainable initiatives
Given the scale of the apparel industry’s supply chains, tensions among green washing, true climate action and ‘better-than-nothing’ argument demand more than a mere attention. Patagonia, the outdoor clothing brand long recognized as a leader of sustainability initiatives in the field, is a staunch proponent of private sector climate action. Sitting on a panel in Paris in December, Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario argued that they are moving faster than a lot of governments.
Of course, the company still makes huge amount of clothing and is far from carbon neutral. The winking ‘Don’t Buy This Jacket’ campaign predictably resulted in the purchase of more than a few jackets. Indeed, the company is seeing double-digit annual growth. Under its ‘1 Per cent For the Planet’ initiative, the company donates 1 per cent of net sales to non-profit environmental organizations each fiscal year.
A company has to have a sustainability strategy that actually works. The question is whether or not there’s a way to truly produce clothing right. Maybe that means carbon neutrality, or perhaps the elimination of commodity-driven deforestation. Or maybe there’s just a central contradiction in trying to fix the problem of there being too much stuff by making more stuff. You can see how this quickly devolves into an argument for nudity.
Patagonia does think critically about the agricultural practices it supports and the production standards it employs. Several of Patagonia’s sustainability-minded trends - a plant-based (as opposed to petroleum-based) Wetsuit, for example - have gone on to be adopted by bigger players in the industry.
The longevity factor
According to Tom Cridland, founder of an eponymous fashion brand, most of the solutions to the industry’s environmental problems boil down to longevity. The brand’s flagship product, the 30 Year Sweatshirt, is billed as, well, exactly what the name implies. Wardrobe staples shouldn’t be made systematically to fall apart, feels Cridland.
Certainly, there are some fairly obvious things you can do as a maker of apparel to improve the environmental impact of your supply chains and several of them encompass more than the concept of longevity. One can recognize that supply chain extends further back than the factory. You can opt for non-petroleum based, organic fibers, such that soil can sequester carbon. If you’re going to use pesticides, use the right ones. Reward countries with strong forestry policies. Be conscious of the energy mix of the country in which your mills and factories are based, and power your factories with renewable energy wherever you can. Partner with shipping companies that use eco-friendly fuels. Avoid air transport. Become a Benefit Corporation. Reuse your cooling water, recover heat from your hot water, and improve the boiler efficiency of your mills. Build your clothing to last.
And companies like Patagonia are doing many of these things. It’s a sentiment echoed by another recent entrant to the sustainable fashion space. Zady, an online fashion brand dedicated to greening its supply chains, argues for the same existential justification. Zady CEO Maxine Bédat argues that the fashion angle allows the message to reach consumers that might not already be thinking about these issues.
Fashion, especially trend-centric fashion, has been relatively slow to embrace real sustainability initiatives. As Bédat explained, the reason it has taken a long time for the apparel industry to understand the connection between itself and climate change - and other issues related to Sustainable Development Goals more generally - is that it’s complicated. It’s not as simple as how much fuel you’re using in your cars or airplanes. As a consequence, consumers simply haven’t been exposed to the same simple messaging as, say, that which comes with remembering to turn off the lights when you leave a room.
SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) recently entered into an agreement with the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) to provide project evaluation consultancy for a scheme that will drive regeneration of traditional industries across 400 traditional village industry clusters in India.
According to the agreement, SPJIMR will provide project consultancy for the scheme, which is titled the 'Revamped Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries', or SFURTI. The scheme has been formulated by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Government of India.
KVIC will intervene in more than 400 clusters all over the country and cover more than 40,000 artisans. SFURTI is to be implemented by KVIC through a well-knit system of Nodal Agencies (NA), Implementing Agencies (IA), Technical Agencies (TA), Cluster Development Executives (CDE) and other resource providers.
India’s apparel sector is pleased with the overall Budget announcements and schemes being initiated for the upcoming financial year. Apparel sector’s long requisition was also addressed in this year’s budget, with a reduction on basic customs duty made from a total of 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
Adding on to the exports-related announcements made in the Budget 2016-17, Ashok G Rajani, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) said, that a total additional exports of Rs 7,500 crores in 2016-17 are envisaged with the incentives announced in this Budget. In the year 2016-17, fabrics worth around Rs 1,000 crores would be eligible for imports and custom duty of Rs 110 crores would be saved by garment exporters.
However, the AEPC felt that the increase in service tax from 14.5 to 15 per cent will adversely affect the growth of apparel sector. Moreover, 2 per cent excise duty on branded readymade garments and textiles with sale price of more than Rs. 1,000 is a cause of worry for the apparel industry. The Budget has also proposed that 60 per cent of retail sale price or the tariff value be made eligible for excise or countervailing duty (CVD) on readymade garments and made-up textile articles. Previously, the tariff value for calculating excise or CVD was fixed at 30 per cent of retail sale price.
Kaushik Kumar, Chairman, TCF Council, Fiji says, infrastructure upgrades such as airport renovations, large scale road works happening in the country and this is a positive sign. First, it provides a lot of encouragement for people looking at investing in Fiji. “As far as the TCF (textiles, clothing and footwear) sector is concerned, we can transport our produce around the country more easily and enhanced airport infrastructure means the possibility of more freight capacity to our main markets,” he says.
Fiji has also adopted a bold trade policy framework aimed at enhancing the reach and reputation of Fijian-made produce around the world, whilst the Ministry of Industry & Trade is doing much to promote the ‘Made in Fiji’ brands. Originally people just thought Fiji was a nice holiday destination. When they actually come out and see what Fiji produces, it is certainly an eye-opener.
In Fiji, the TCF industry started in the early 1980s with a handful of local players involved in exports. A tax-free scheme was introduced which encouraged foreign investors and local investors to invest in new factories and boost exports. One of the driving forces at that stage was Fiji’s market access into Australia under the SPARTECA agreement.
Kumar says they saw quite a big boom between the late 1980s right up to the mid-90s, when the garment industry went from a handful of operators to over 100 factories. “We grew from an employment base of 3,000 to 18,000 employees, with exports reaching $450 million,” he observed.
Over the last three years Fiji registered steady a growth in the TCF sector. Over the last five years, 3,000 additional jobs have been created in the TCF sector. The sector’s order books look pretty full and everyone seems to be very optimistic. 2016 does look pretty good. Moreover, there are a couple of factories that have big expansion plans in the near future.
The Australian wool market has eased slightly as lackluster demand and a strong local currency have failed to incite buyers to break from their top up buying activity. Lower spec types were again largely ignored or discounted in favor of better style wool and the gap between the mediocre and the best widened further.
Superfine and medium merino indicators all retreated by 20 to 40 cents as buyers operated mostly on Chinese indent orders, which had been reduced in local currency terms before the sale thanks to a stronger Australian dollar. Shorter wool, pieces, lambs and cardings fared slightly better with lower volumes leading to a more or less unchanged price level while crossbred wools in the main continued to drift south.
The tone of the market seemed to improve a little by the end of the final day, and prices across the nation for the mainstream merino types are also similar, which is usually a sign for a more positive outcome the following week. Activity in the processing chain around the world continues to be mixed with reports from China less exuberant than other markets such as India and Europe. In China most mills are now back at work and given the general sluggishness of Chinese manufacturing sector workers returned on time from their holidays.
World year-ending stocks of cotton are projected to decrease by eight per cent. This represents about 86 per cent of world cotton consumption in July to June of 2015-16. This is the first reduction in world ending stocks since 2009-10.
Interestingly, the fall in end of season stock is estimated due to lower crop and is not supported by demand which is also falling. There are two reasons for falling demand. One is the lower price of polyester, an alternate fiber, which has also fallen significantly following a sharp fall in crude oil prices. Many users including its biggest cotton consumer China have shifted to that manmade fiber.
Second China’s demand for cotton is also falling and most other cotton producing nations have experienced a similar trend. The development has also changed global equations in cotton consumption with countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh who have seen a spurt in cotton consumption.
World cotton consumption is projected to decrease by two per cent. Cotton consumption in China, the world’s largest consumer, has declined continuously since 2009-10. In 2015-16, cotton consumption in China is expected to be down five per cent from last season. India’s cotton consumption is expected to decline by two per cent.
