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The volume of Kenyan apparels shipped to the US under the African Growth and Opportunity Act declined by 12.1 per cent last year. The AGOA allows US buyers to import goods from sub-Saharan Africa without paying duties or facing quota restrictions. But whether AGOA will continue to be favored by the US remains uncertain.
The US is Kenya’s largest apparel export destination. Textiles and apparel account for about 80 per cent of Kenya’s total exports to the US under the pact. Direct employment generated by AGOA increased by 2.5 per cent in 2016 while the number of enterprises operating at the export processing zones in Kenya increased to 91 from the 89 recorded in 2015. Total sales by the enterprises in the 65 export processing zones increased by 5.8 per cent in 2016 compared to the year before.
Exports from the export processing zones increased 3.7 per cent, accounting for 91.9 per cent of total sales. With the country becoming more visible on the global map, local traders are increasingly opening more supply channels to the US, helped by increased interactions with American investors. Kenya is looking to expand the list of products it exports.
Executives from 12 leading Bangladesh companies will be travelling to the United States ‘cotton belt’ to learn more about why US cotton is the world’s preferred fiber?. The tour set for April 30-May 6 will allow the group to participate in multiple meetings with US cotton exporters and help facilitate export of US cotton to these manufacturers. Bangladesh is US cotton’s 9th largest market, with US export commitments there at more than 500,000 bales to date in the 2016-17 marketing year ending July 31.
The individual companies participating in this trade mission are expected to consume about 705,000 bales in 2016-17 – about 11 per cent of Bangladesh’s total cotton consumption. The Bangladeshi delegation will begin its tour in New York with a CCI briefing and an ICE Futures seminar. During their tour, they will also see cotton research in North Carolina, tour the USDA cotton classing office in Bartlett, TN, and visit a cotton farm and gin in West Texas.
<> The group also will meet exporters in the cotton belt’s four major regions and with key industry organizations like: AMCOT, American Cotton Producers, American Cotton Shippers Association, Cotton Incorporated, Lubbock Cotton Exchange, National Cotton Council, Plains Cotton Growers, among others
Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing textile industry. Increasing demand for textiles made way for illegal structures, cheap labors. According to New York-based right Human Rights Watch many global companies are not complying with rules and regulations in their units. Only 29 out of 72 recently contacted companies have released information about how they source their products in Bangladesh, and "many brands have held out completely," Only 17 companies are now meeting the minimum disclosure standard, while some others are starting to move in the right direction.
Bangladesh's garment industry has invested more than $1 billion in safety improvements since April 24, 2013, when the Rana Plaza garment factory complex collapsed, killing more than 1,130 workers and injuring 2,500. Following the 2013 disaster, global clothing companies joined UN agencies and the Bangladesh government in promising improved safety standards. Representatives from North American and European brands visited the country's garment factories to suggest improvements or sever ties with factories that failed to improve.
The government has also hired more than 350 new factory inspectors and passed legislation setting up a workers' welfare fund and allowing stronger union representation. The companies say the efforts are paying off. The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a group of 29 North American brands, lauded the industry's progress over the last four years as it says their comprehensive programs have begun to transform the industry once repeatedly facing tragedies. The group has 775 factories in its network. Low wages in the South Asian country have attracted global apparel brands and retailers.
Despite Brexit, Britain has revived some of the foreign investment in the country. The recent example is investment of millions in textile industry in the Northwest city of Lancashire. This has helped create nearly 380 jobs and 24 apprenticeships, while safeguarding nearly 150 of the existing jobs. Interim findings from the Textiles Growth Program has shown that 39 business across Lancashire have invested £8million in the program over four years. And as David Hardman, Chairman of Accrington-based textiles firm Lantex opines despite overseas competition they continued manufacturing for both domestic and international markets.
Figures from the Textiles Growth Program show nationally there has been a £200million growth in production in the last two years. They also estimate textiles production in the UK was worth £9.1billion last year and 4,450 additional jobs were created or safeguarded by the Textiles Growth Program. The program focused on five Local Enterprise Partnership areas (LEP) which previously had a history of textiles manufacturing .These include: Lancashire, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Leicestershire.
As per Lorna Fitzsimons, Founder and Director of Textiles Growth Program points out five years ago, Lord Alliance challenged Sir Vince Cable, the then secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, to recognize the opportunity for increasing UK fashion and textiles manufacturing. Thus began an extensive study on supply and demand for UK fashion and textiles manufacturing in decades.
Bayard Winthrop, CEO and Founder of the clothing brand American Giant, is not impressed by President Trump’s mission ‘Buy American, hire American’. Winthrop says the problem is not that it's hard to manufacture in America. American Giant was founded in 2011, and it has remained committed to selling Made-in-USA garments for a price that most would consider reasonable for their touted quality. It makes most of its garments in a factory in Middlesex, North America. The brand has proven that selling American-made clothing can work as long as you make something people want to buy. American Giant found early success with a sweatshirts that was crowned "the greatest hoodie ever made" in 2013, and that success has moved into other categories like women's pants.
Winthrop admits that small tweaks to trade deals like NAFTA could help American Giant, he adds it would really help his business by fixing the other things that every business has to deal with simplifying taxes and health care. He says they are not talking about that in a meaningful way and you're going to find in a hurry that a lot of things like immigration are important to this business in case one took the time to go to North Carolina along with him for six hours and meet some of these people and talk about the actual challenges.
He further adds, he will keep sailing on with American Giant whether lifted or buffeted by the Trump administration's policies. He leaves it on the customers to judge and at some point have someone in Washington says Winthrop.
World cotton supply and demand estimates for 2016-17 include a modest net increase in world production, concentrated in China, Brazil and several other countries and partially offset by a reduction in Australia. However, the real wild card is US exports for the new crop market. The old crop market has been driven by a boom in US exports. This is reflected by a seven-month uptrend in both price and export sales, representing an expansion of the demand relationship. Most of this expansion can be attributed to the particularly good, and widespread, quality of the 2016 US crop.
To the extent greater export demand for US cotton depends on the US actually having the biggest supply of quality cotton in a given year, it remains to be seen whether the US will retain this larger market share. We don’t know what the quality of the 2017 crop will be.
On consumption side, domestic mill use can be expected to be around 3.5 million. However, market share may be influenced by more longer-lasting things, like the reputation of the sourcing country, and the expanded relationships between suppliers and buyers. Perhaps then there will be positive spillover into the new crop marketing year that is somewhat independent of the specific quality of 2017 US cotton supplies.
The UK bedroom textiles market is set to grow by 12.5 per cent between 2017 and 2022, reveals research and consulting firm GlobalData. The report explains how retailers are successfully able to target shoppers by suggesting replacing bedroom textiles at regular intervals is an important practice to maintain healthy and hygienic sleep habits.
Sarah Johns, Retail Analyst for GlobalData explains with over a third of shoppers agreeing that they never seem to get a good night’s sleep, retailers can increase sales by emphasizing the ways in which new bedding can improve comfort and quality of sleep. The company believes retailers should also aim to capitalize on the increasingly fashion-oriented environment of the bedroom textiles space. For example, Hygge, a trend embracing Scandinavia’s minimalistic way of living, directly impacted the look of bedroom textiles in 2016 as consumers sought cosy yet minimalistic decor. ‘Lagom’, meaning ‘just the right amount’, is the next Scandinavian lifestyle trend to hit headlines, and a good example of the sort of household trend development retailers should track to stay ahead of the curve.
Johns further adds traditional bedroom textile retailers, such as department stores, need to ensure they communicate the superior quality of their products. This can be achieved through visual social media accounts such as Pinterest, which will help reach a target audience interested in home design and embrace the latest home lifestyle trends.
Production of UK textile and apparel increased 2.5 per cent over the last two years. Exports rose 28 per cent from 2012 to 2016. Apparel exports alone increased by 41 per cent from 2012 to 2016. The Textiles Growth Program has helped create 1,600 jobs and 115 apprenticeship positions in England in its first year. So far, over 340 manufacturing companies have invested in the program, creating an additional 4,450 jobs and 380 apprenticeships.
The continued rise in exports is driven by a number of factors including an increased interest in heritage UK manufacturing, the creativity of British fashion designers as well as the importance of the UK as a key apparel trading hub.
The UK textile and apparel industry has always been well recognized around the world as one of the most influential players in the global market for its leading position in fashion designing, manufacturing, retailing and fashion education. There was a slowdown in growth over the past few years due to the strong competition from emerging Asian countries and uncertainty from Brexit.
New investment and government support are expected to further boost industry growth by creating more jobs, supporting more capital projects, training more skilled workers, and facilitating R&D.
American company providing fashion technology solutions globally, Tukatech, is looking at expanding market share in India’s apparel industry. The company at present occupies a 85 per cent market of share of educational institutions and a 60 per cent share of the apparel industry in India.
Having served almost all high-end international and national brands, its focus is now to bring the technology to the small and medium apparel industry. Its latest innovation — the TUKA3D Enterprise Edition — aims to increase efficiency in product development, thereby reducing the time and cost in developing new samples and enabling effective global communications and faster sample approvals through TUKA Cloud.
The company aims to revolutionise the small and medium sector in the apparel industry. TUKA3D Enterprise Edition includes all high-functioning 3D development capabilities for a virtual product development at a more attainable price. TUKA Cloud is a web-based sample room for digital collaboration.
This solution serves as a database of virtual samples, and is also a communications platform that enables product development to take place in a digital environment, reminiscent of the traditional design process. Going virtual has allowed apparel manufacturers to reduce their product development time considerably, and increase their first-sample acceptance rate.
Pakistan is helping the entire chain of the textile sector to adopt and upgrade to new technology. A textile corner will be set up which will provide guidance and awareness to exporters to adopt new technologies in order to improve the quality of their products. It will also help in sensitizing textilers to promote value addition and earn more profit from their exportable surplus. The textile corner is meant to bridge the gap between industry and academia. Funds have been allotted to carry out research activities and bring about a qualitative improvement in industry-academia linkages.
Textile experts hailing from different sectors will visit this corner and advise concerned industrialists on solving their immediate problems. In some areas textile testing facilities are scarce and exporters have to send their products for this purpose to foreign laboratories. This process is very costly and time consuming. So such facilities will be set up wherever possible.
The textile industry is the biggest industry of Pakistan, earning foreign exchange worth $12 billion per annum for the country. However, the country’s textile exports have been declining for many years due to international recession coupled with energy crisis and inconsistent domestic policies.
