As per trade promotion body ZimTrade, Zimbabwe’s textile and footwear exports by 85 percent in 2021 as the country made inroads into regional markets. Zimbabwe’s exports of these products surged to $32,3 million in the first eight months of 2021 from $17,7 million in 2020, as per a report by The Herald.

Traditionally Zimbabwe’s textile market sector exports products mainly to South Africa with an estimated export market share of 91,74 percent, Zambia (1,91 percent), Germany (0,34), Malawi with an exports contribution of 0,12 percent, and Mozambique.

Currently less than 10 per cent textile manufacturers export their products inspite the growing regional market and inroads being made into Europe in the past few years. On the other hand, footwear production is on path to recovery after taking a battering in the economically turbulent years between 2001-2008.

The National Development Strategy (NDS 2021-2022) has also identified the leather sector as one of the key-value chains. The government has also pledged to recapitalize the leather and footwear sub-sector so as to increase industrial capacity utilization and boost exports through the production of value-added products such as finished leather, footwear, and other leather products.

If current bidders do not improve their offers significantly, lenders of textile major Sintex Industries’ plan to hold a Swiss challenge auction to prevent the business from going bankrupt. The lenders plan to adopt several ways to encourage bidders to substantially increase their offers for purchase. They plan to take the auction route instead of voting for liquidation.

The Swiss challenge system involves publishing of the bid made upon it by an entityt and inviting third parties to either match the bid or submit a higher bid. Reliance Industries ACRE team earlier made a bid for Sintex industries, which led to resolution professional Pinakin Shah asking bidders to submit improved offers and resolution plans for the business.

Sintex currently has four bidders with Reliance Industries’ ACRE team having offered the most for the business with an offer of Rs 2,363 crore. Textile business Welspun’s Easygo Textile has offered Rs 2,300 crore and Himatsingka Ventures and GHCL have also placed slightly smaller bids.

In its third quarter ended December 31, 2021, Sangam India posted a net profit of Rs 43.74 crore as against loss of Rs 29.87 crore posted during the quarter ended September 30, 2021. The company reported total income of Rs 652.44 crore in Q3 ended December 31, 2021 as compared to Rs 642.20 crore during the quarter ended September 30, 2021.

On a year-on-year basis, Sangam India posted a profit of Rs 43.74 crore during the quarter ended December 2021 against a loss of Rs 7.43 crore posted during the quarter ended December 31, 2029. The company reported total income of Rs 652.44 crore during the period ended December 31, 2021 as compared to Rs442.83 crore during the period ended December 31, 2020.

The Noida Apparel Export Cluster (NAEC) has urged the Union government to help contain the rising cotton yarn and fabrics prices. Lalit Thukral, President, NAEC, urged the government to control cotton exports, remove 10 per cent cotton import duty, and develop a mechanism to regulate cotton and other raw materials prices to support the sector.

Thukral said the unexpected steep price rise of the cotton is hurting the production costs of apparel manufacturers and exporters. It is leading to loss of orders for exports and dwindling confidence of importers and buyers. Unchecked exports to competing countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand is further aggravating the situation, Thukral added.

Prices of the fabrics have increased to Rs 40-50. Low import costs is helping Bangladesh, Vietnam Thailand and other countries reduce apparel production costs, threating India’s position in the global apparel market.

Currently buying £1 billion worth of clothes from Bangladesh each year, M&S intends to step up its purchases to make the country its top sourcing location for apparel products. The brand wishes to acquire more garments from Bangladesh due to supplier obligations and product diversification. It no longer aims to source basic sourcing, reports Textile Focus.

M&S has increased sourcing from Bangladesh by 30 per cent year on year in the last three years. It imports a variety of garments from the country. Besides, it also provides manufacturers technological, design and finance assistance to help them stay in business. It collaborates with 12 green factories in the country.

Bangladesh’s clothing industry has undergone significant transformation in the last few years. The country is no longer a provider of basic clothing. It has become more aggressive in protecting the production environment. Factory owners in the country have begun to repair structural issues with the support of Accord, Alliance, and the government, and are making their factories an example of safety.

The reluctance of textile business to set up fabric manufacturing units in the country is leading to a gap between demand and supply of yarn-dyed fabrics known as checked and striped shirting clothes in Bangladesh. According to the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), demand for checked and striped shirting clothes is the highest among other woven garments in the world, businesses said.

Mohammad Ali Khokon, President, BTMA says, production of woven fabrics lags behind in the country due to the absence of adequate facilities due to lack of investment and uninterrupted gas and power supply. He urged the government to invite foreign investments for the backward linkage of woven-subsector as a plant for checked and striped shirting fabrics requires Tk 300-400 crore which is many fold higher than the cost for a knit fabric manufacturing unit.

Local textile mills meet four billion meters of woven fabrics out of 10 billion meters for annual exports. The local mills meet 50-60 per cent of demand for plain woven fabrics, 50 per cent for denim fabrics and nearly 10 per cent of (yarn dyed) checked and striped fabrics, he said.

Production units for woven fabrics are not increasing in the country due to high project costs, adds Md Shahidullah Azim, Vice President, BGMEA. He requested the government to extend low-cost finance for strengthening the backward linkage to tap the potential of global export market.

According to the Export Promotion Bureau data, Bangladesh’s export earnings from woven garments in the first half (July—December) of FY22 increased by 24.50 per cent to $8.74 billion while earnings from knitwear increased by 30.91 per cent to $11.16 billion. Despite having potential, Bangladesh RMG sector would lose work orders of woven garments as the sub-sector depends on imported fabrics, Khokon adds

Rising yarn and fabric prices are causing loss of orders for garment exporters, says Vimal Shah, President, Garment Exporters Association of Rajasthan. He adds, it has become impossible to absorb the increase of 40-50 per cent in fabric prices and remain competitive. Domestic exporters are finding it tough to convert queries into orders as they cannot match the price countries like Bangladesh offer, Shah adds. They cannot offer the rates offered by other countries for their orders. This is impacting their profit margins, he further states.

Cotton prices have escalated owing to supply constraints with hoarding by traders and speculation in the commodities markets further adding to woes. Garment manufacturers catering to the domestic market as well, have been impacted due to COVID lockdowns as organized retailers, who sourced from them, did not pay for 6-12 months.

Adidas Originals and Prada are debuting into the metaverse with a new project called the Adidas for Prada Re-Nylon collection. As per a Spin Off report, the new Adidas for Prada collection will be executed in collaboration with NFT and feature user-generated and creator-owned art. The project will bring together participants across fashion, design and crypto to co-create a large-scale digital artwork inspired by the physical Prada Re-Nylon collection, a collection made with Econyl, a fiber made with recyled nylon.

The Metaverse-NFT project will be open with anonmymized photographs from audiences of Adidas and Prada. The project will mint 3,000 community-sourced artworks as NFTs and compile them as tiles in a single mass-patchwork NFT designed by creative coder and digital artist, Zach Lieberman. The new project will involve participants in the Adidas for Prada Re-Source NFT project for free, and contributors will maintain full ownership rights over their individual NFT tiles.

Adidas Originals and Prada will leverage NFTs and Web3 technology to reward participation in a new kind of collective rooted in ownership, authenticity and community.

In a letter to the Pakistan government, APTMA has expressed displeasure over the approval of questionable cotton seed varieties with low yield potential of 2.1 maunds per acre despite the fact that there are varieties available in the private sector having the ability to produce 18 maunds per acre.

APTMA leaders want the approval of seed varieties of research and development institutions in private sector to meet the export targets mentioning that textile industry imported in financial year 2020-21 cotton of 5.04 million bales valued at $1.479 billion and in the first six months of current financial year, 2.22 million bales of cotton worth $821.206 million.

The industry leaders seek approval of cotton production in the country by Punjab and Sindh Seed Councils as their seed varieties can produce more cotton up to 18 maunds per acre. In the letter, APTMA urged Fakhar Imam, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Fakhar Imam, to ensure that Punjab and Sindh Seed Councils approve these high-yielding varieties based on fiber relaxation only in staple length in order to meet the domestic raw cotton requirements of the textile sector to meet export targets.

Denim Darzi has launched a new upcycled, sustainable and fashionable range of collection. As per a Fashion Network report, the range includes outfits for men, women and kids. Started around the pandemic in 2020 by entrepreneur Rupali Mukherjee, the brand was born out of sheer love for denims and with an aim to repurpose old denim wear and industry-waste denim meaningfully.

Denim Darzi’s wide collection includes Indian, western and Indo-western styles in various silhouettes from a sari to a dhoti. The brand upcycles post-consumer discarded denims and textile industry-waste denim. It infuses the collected denim with fabric waste from shops and the textile industry to design our collections. Its outfits are a concoction of waste denim and other fabrics like satin, cotton, linen, jamdani, adds Mukherjee.

The brand has tied up with a tailoring unit. It does hand sketches and sends them. The idea was to work sustainably and not have a big production unit. The brand operates only through online platforms.