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The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is keen on reaching a settlement on minimum wage for garment workers by negotiating with labour unions before submitting the final proposal to the newly formed wage board. The government formed the wage board on January 14 to review minimum wages for readymade garment sector workers.
BGMEA leaders say they were trying to reach a compromise over minimum wage to stall any possible workers’ unrest during negotiations by the wage board.
The trade body held a meeting with the RMG sector trade union federations’ leaders and asked their cooperation to keep workers calm during the negotiation. The BGMEA held meeting with leaders of 16 garment worker federations affiliated with IndustriALL Bangladesh Council and the trade body would hold another meeting with the leaders of other federations next week.
BGMEA vice-president Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu said, ‘It was a regular meeting with the IBC leaders and we have sought their cooperation to set the minimum wage for the garment sector without any untoward situation.” He also said that on the first day of the discussion the BGMEA had gained a deeper understanding of the issue at hand.
Union leaders demanded Tk 16,000 as the minimum wage and further discussion on the amount would be held in the next round of meeting. Babu said, “To avert any untoward situation centring setting of the minimum wage for RMG workers, we want to settle the amount through negotiations with labour leaders.”
Joe Nicosia Senior Head of Cotton and Merchandising at Louis Dreyfus Company in Memphis has estimated US cotton acreage will grow between 12.5 to 13 million acres in 2018 partly due to favourable prices as against other crops. At the annual meeting of the Southern Cotton Growers and South Eastern Cotton Ginners Association, Nicosia, said cotton is still faring favourably when compared to other row crops in the US.
At current prices, world cotton area is likely to increase slightly in 2018-19, he said. “With a production outlook of 20 million plus bales, the US has the opportunity to maintain or even expand its share of world trade, but execution is going to be critical.” International cotton consumption has grown to 120.8 million bales for 2017-18 but this is still below the peak of 124.2 million bales in 2006-2007. Global consumption fell to 104.2 million bales in 2011-2012.
USDA reports world cotton production is expected to increase to 121 million bales in 2017-2018, as against 106.6 million bales in 2016-2017 and 96.2 million bales in 2015-2016. Currently, Nicosia forecasts a slight global cotton deficit in 2018-2019. He said the world has moved from a 16.1 million bale production deficit in 2015-2016 to production-consumption balance in 2017-2018.
USDA data estimates 2017-18 world ending stocks to be 87.8 million bales. Nicosia said this is still high and could impact prices. Nicosia expressed concern about cotton being held in US warehouses that is not being shipped to customers quickly enough. Nicosia said shipping delays by warehouses is harming all sectors of the industry.
In the recent past, you have wished and been wished a happy new year. When was the last time someone wished you happy new product? In case you have to stretch your memory about your last new product launch, chances are your products are dated!
Let’s take a sock manufacturer as an example. Say, they have been happy with their business as the local market they have been supplying to has been kind to them. Business is steady and profits are healthy. They are unlikely to innovate, presumably somewhat oblivious that they are indeed part of the booming worldwide socks market. As retailers and e-tailers look for fresh new products to woo their customers, this sock manufacturer is likely to take a back seat.
On the global scene, the socks market is one of the fastest growing segments of the apparel industry with a compound annual growth rate of 8.5% at present. By 2023, the global socks market is estimated to be worth around the $11.6 billion mark. Specialty socks, athletic socks and women’s socks are some of the market segments likely to show growth not only in the Indian domestic market but also most of the rest of the world. Today’s net-savvy consumers base their purchasing decisionson what their socks can do for them, how they look and feel; and increasingly what they do or don’t do to the environment. So if your socks can claim special performance or comfort characteristics, come in clever designs and/or claim environmental benefits, you are likely to have a winner product.
Now innovations like that don’t come in easily unless you put in commitment and effort into your product development function. But it’s not as monstrous as it sounds either. Access to innovative yarns, knitting and finishing technologies, special performance effects together with a good understanding of the needs of the target consumer are enough to get you started. Along the path, you also need good project management to turn the ideas into reality.
Now why doesn’t everyone do it if it’s so easy, I hear you question. The key reason – inability to accept that future will not simply be a repetition of the past. Dreamers call it vision and practitioners turn that vision into reality.
Are you that practitioner? Assuming you are that symbolic “sock” manufacturer whose markets have served them well over the years, will you be taking the lead in 2018 in move towards introducing products that excite and delight the customers you currently do not have? It’s a decision that has far reaching effects on your own business.
We want you to envision your own plans for your own products for this year! Happy New Products!
The government has issued a statutory regulatory order (SRO) granting permission to import cotton with zero duty thus providing the much awaited relief to the textile industry. As Ejaz Gohar, a textile industrialist points out the FBR has issued the required SRO at last and the unscrupulous elements in the government backed with cotton hoarders have been defeated, but they managed non-implementation of the decision taken by the federal cabinet and ECC for 21 days. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on January 5 approved zero rating of import of cotton and if the decision was implemented at that time, 21 days would not have been wasted.
Pakistan produced 11.5 million bales with 150kg weight each which is equal to 10 million bales with weight of 170kg each. Thus, the country had missed the three million bales which the government permitted on January 5 for import but it took the long period of 21 days on account of influential black marketers. The use of one million cotton bales results in exports of $1 billion. The SRO notification is not time bound and under this industry can import 3 million cotton bales leading to $3 billion exports.
Adviser to All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Shahid Sattar feels black marketers influenced the government after the ECC decision and made the textile industry hostage for 21 days. He regretted in Pakistan middleman gets 45 per cent price of cotton and farmers have only 55 per cent share in the cotton price whereas in the other cotton growing countries of the world, middleman gets only 12 per cent and farmers community has 88 per cent share in cotton prices.
Luxury fashion house Ralph Lauren has appointed several senior staff members in an effort to speed up its global expansion efforts. Alice Delahunt will join the brand and retailer as chief digital officer in April, a newly-created role that will see her report directly to chief executive Patrice Louvet.
Louvet said, “We are moving urgently to expand our digital presence all over the world and bringing in the right senior talent to help us deliver. We have to meet consumers where they are, which is increasingly online and digital expansion is one critical way we will drive new growth for our iconic business and brand.”
Delahunt joins from Burberry where she held various positions since 2011, ending in her current position as global director of digital and social marketing since July 2016. She will be building Ralph Lauren’s digital platforms and enhancing the digital experience across all channels. Elsewhere, Ralph Lauren’s current head of ecommerce at its Club Monaco brand, Laura Porco, will take on the role as senior vice president of ecommerce. Before joining the company, she spent 12 years at Amazon, holding a role as director of Kindle books for four years. Valeria Juarez and Galen Hardy have also joined the Ralph Lauren group, to work as senior vice president of ecommerce international and senior vice president of ecommerce and business operations at Club Monaco.
The Federal Government and Private Sector will collaborate in creating Special Economic Zones (SEZ), starting first with the textile and garment industry to spur up Nigeria’s economic development, says Vice President Osinbajo. At WEF, Davos he said “Having the right mind-set and understanding where we want to go”, will affect the implementation process whilst ensuring things get done in the nation’s business environment. He stressed that the collaboration between private sector and the government ensures consistency in the implementation of economic policies.
One of the reasons he is optimistic about the forthcoming SEZ for garment manufacturing is because it is “specific and is something we can measure very quickly; working with investors and allowing them to tell us what they want to achieve. This will help us attain set objectives.” Both the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma and Minister for Industry, Trade & Investment, Okey Enelamah were also at the interaction.
Speaking earlier, Senator Udoma mentioned that there were many advantages for Nigeria to create the SEZ for textile manufacturing, noting the use of English as the country’s official language, their political stable environment and the provision of an enabling environment for the private sector. Confidence is being restored in the hearts of people regarding economic policies.
Former World Bank Chief Economist, Professor Justin Lin says the garment and textile industry in Nigeria has huge potential because Nigeria produces cotton, as well as the availability of good locations around the country, including the large markets both domestically and internationally.
As print customers increasingly seek to improve their environmental footprint and their company’s social responsibility, appropriate information can be gathered from other sectors’ sustainability efforts. Findings from a Life Cycle Assessment of cellulosic fibres, commissioned by Stella McCartney gives valuable insights for the printing sector. Similar to paper, manmade cellulosic fibres (MMCF) such as viscose, rayon and trademarked fabrics such as Tencel are derived from forests.
Style gurus are also looking at sustainability issues. Many of the world’s most recognized brands, including Levi’s, H&M, Wrangler and The Gap have turned their attention to ensuring their viscose fabrics, including, their packaging and printed materials, do not originate from the world’s forests.
Today, 105 fashion brands have signed policies with not-for-profit Canopy, committing to eliminate any sourcing from the world’s endangered forests and help catalyse the production of next generation solutions. Fashion brand Stella McCartney is one such that is fully committed to sustainability and to that end, commissioned SCS Global Services to undertake a truly ground breaking Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the impact of sourcing MMCF.
The study compared the environmental performance of ten different raw material sources of manmade cellulosic fibres, examining a range of environmental issues from fibre derived from forests and agricultural operations right through to the production of viscose/rayon or their equivalents made with flax.
While focused on the production of cellulosic fibre for clothing, LCAs findings are worthy of evaluation as the results revealed the impacts of extraction across a wide range of forest ecosystems. Pulp derived from Indonesian rainforests, Indonesian plantations and Canada’s Boreal Forests registered the heaviest environmental footprints. In contrast Belgian Flax and recycled textile pulps presented favourably across the majority of the performance categories.
US biotech giant Monsanto has written to the Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh that they had warned about the bollworm developing resistance to Bt seed in 2015. Monsanto claims the technology is ‘still effective against American bollworm, which is the primary targeted pest. Pink bollworm, which has damaged cotton crop, is a secondary pest’. Guess the Indian bollworm must have turned into a horror monster Frankenstein. It claims even seed makers were warned and advised to spread awareness about practices to be followed by farmers to prevent losses.
The claim gains importance post the company's dispute with domestic seed makers over the pink bollworm attack on the cotton crop in Maharashtra. The National Seed Association of India (NSAI), which represents seed makers, says Monsanto's letter about the warning in 2015 is a confession that its technology has failed. In that case, it should stop charging a technology fee from seed makers, which is eventually passed on to farmers.
The company has developed the genetically modified Bt cotton seeds. The mass production is done under a licence agreement by several domestic seed companies, which pay a fee per bag to the multinational. The Bt seeds are supposed to be resistant to bollworm.
Monsanto operates in India through its local arm — Mayhco Monsanto Biotech Limited (MMBL). NSAI had earlier written to the ministry as well as MMBL, threatening the industry may not make fresh Bt seeds. In response, MMBL sent a letter to the minister saying, "The Genetic Engineering and Appraisal Committee (GEAC) of the government was informed about high level of tolerance to Cry2Ab protein as early as September 2015." Even the sub-licensee seed companies were provided specific guidance in February 2016 and March 2017 to undertake farmer advisories on right practices to prevent losses. In a meeting with Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR), to which NSAI was an invitee too, it was decided to continue using the technology along with right practices, the letter says.
Business is booming for a clothing assembly factory located in the central Mexican state of Puebla. Exports are a success due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Every month, Confecciones de Punta which produces 1,00,000 pieces of clothing, exports directly to stores in Los Angeles, New York and Houston. Jose Luis Hachity, CEO, for nearly 35 years says, “When NAFTA came into effect, we did not have to go to the US and make sales. Instead, US clothing industry leaders came looking for us.”
However, many small and medium-sized Mexican businesses fear that the end of NAFTA is at hand. He says even if the US withdraws from the trade deal, geographic proximity to the US gives Mexico a trade advantage. Hachity recounts, “We are more efficient when it comes to logistics because we are delivering our products within three weeks. No other country, not even Asian ones, can do that. Nowadays, that is crucial in the fast-paced fashion industry where designs change from one month to the next. We are able to keep up with those changes.”
Trade expert Luz Maria de la Mora was one within Mexico’s original team of NAFTA negotiators in the mid 1990s. She assesses, “Overall let’s say that tomorrow President Trump by his policies he would eliminate completely trade deficit with Mexico, the trade deficit will increase with another country because there is an appetite, there is a need in the US for have this kind of imports.”
Mexican clothing makers say half a million textile jobs could depend on the outcome of NAFTA re-negotiations, however, Mexican textile factory owners are working on new strategies and are sourcing new markets, in case the U.S. raises import duties.
The family office of the Hamburg OTTO family has brokered new investors of Sympatex Technologies. After having successfully restructured the Smart Solutions Holding (parent company of Sympatex Technologies GmbH) at the beginning of December 2017 and having evaluated the available purchase offers, the Munich manufacturer of functional textiles will be owned by members of the OTTO family and advised by KG CURA Vermögensverwaltung.
After the former conclusion of the legal challenging period of bond restructuring, the company can now embark towards a promising future. Sympatex will still operate as an independent company. No structural or personnel changes are planned and the Sympatex company headquarters will still be located in Unterföhring near Munich.
Rüdiger Fox, CEO of Sympatex Technologies explains. “In Germany, no other name represents credibility in terms of social and ecological corporate responsibility better than the OTTO family. With our consistent alignment towards innovation for sustainable functional textiles, we cannot image a better choice. We are already looking forward to continue to enhance the relations with the growing number of customers taking their ecological responsibility and the apparent future market requirements seriously.”
