LeafWorks is one of the first herbal genetics company to offer a comprehensive DNA validation system in the hemp and cannabis marketplaces. The US-based plant genetics company, specialising in the botanical identification of hemp, has launched a proprietary test which is expected to save growers a great deal of time and money. The firm’s 99.9 per cent accurate Gender ID Test is designed to solve the time-intensive problem of identifying male plants in the commercial cultivation of hemp and cannabis. LeafWorks aims at providing accessible next-generation science to cannabis and botanical producers so they can grow their businesses, reduce potential for costly fraud, and provide consumers with the information they need to make confident choices.

The practice of screening and removing of male plants is critical as they can ruin harvests with accidental pollination of neighboring females. The standard wait time at present to learn a cannabis plant’s gender can currently be more than five weeks after germination. This period, courtesy of the new LeafWorks’ DNA-based test, can be cut to 14 days. The company offers a test kit which is easy to use, taking five minutes to prepare a DNA sample that is then posted to the firm’s testing facility.

The practice of screening and removing of male plants is critical as they can ruin harvests with accidental pollination of neighboring females.

Kingpins will mandate corporate social responsibility standards for its exhibitors. The denim industry event series will ensure all its exhibitors comply with a set of mandatory environmental and social standards by 2020. These denim mills will also be expected to meet stringent chemical management standards aligned to ZDHC (zero discharge of hazardous chemicals) criteria.

The show’s goal is to become even more engaged in promoting environmental responsibility within the industry. Advise and support will be offered to exhibitors in order to help them transform their approach. Kingpins does not wish to introduce new certifications, but the organisers are keen to promote the strictest existing ones. Once they have drawn up a set of social responsibility specifications for exhibitors, they plan to share them with other textile shows, in order to promote collective change across the supply chain. For the time being, the new exhibitor admission criteria are limited to the show’s Amsterdam edition, but the goal is to eventually apply them to the New York, Hong Kong and China shows too.

Both the denim supply chain and jeans manufacturers have been frequently singled out for their less than satisfactory environmental and human rights records. The accusations have mostly been leveled at workshops and factories outside the European Union.

Intertextile Pavilion will be held in Shenzhen, China from July 4 to 6, 2019. Around 1000 leading exhibitors will display a wide range of innovative fabric product categories including manmade, knitted, silk, linen, wool, denim, sportswear/functional, lace and embroidery and swimwear, as well as yarn and fiber and accessories. New product groups will be featured, including OEM, sewing equipment and textile additives.

Returning international pavilions include: Taiwan Pavilion, Korea Pavilion and Fine Japan Zone. Taiwan Pavilion will feature knitted, jacquard, lace and embroideries, woven fabrics, functional and denim fabrics. Korea Pavilion will display a wide range of women’s wear fabrics, such as manmade fashionable fabrics, knits, embroidery jacquard, tri-acetate woven and printed fabrics. Some members will also showcase functional fabrics and faux fur. Fine Japan Zone will cover a range of high-quality cotton and manmade fabrics for women’s wear as well as casual wear, with the ability to handle small order quantities, product-in-stock orders and quick delivery service.

Shenzhen is China’s fashion capital. Shenzhen and has a 70 per cent share of China’s high-end women’s wear market with around 30,000 fashion designers and over 2,000 fashion retailers. It has a solid industry, from design to manufacturing.

Sri Lanka is aiming for a special bilateral preferential trade agreement with the United Kingdom. The UK has already assured Sri Lanka that GSP Plus concessions will continue in the Brexit transitional period, which is expected to last for approximately 21 months following Brexit.

Sri Lanka can potentially explore a free trade arrangement with the UK without any strings attached and gain the same or more benefits of the GSP Plus scheme as opposed to the EU’s Plus scheme where Sri Lanka has to fulfil several conditions. Such an agreement can also enable Sri Lankan export commodities to be more competitive in the UK, as the EU has granted the Most-Favored Nation status to countries such as China and Maldives, which are competing with Sri Lanka in the EU market.

However, Sri Lanka’s utilisation of the GSP Plus scheme remains weak compared to other countries. Sri Lanka has utilised 55 per cent tariff lines in the GSP Plus scheme while Pakistan and Philippines have utilised 96 per cent and 73 per cent of the tariff lines. So Sri Lanka needs to diversify its export basket in order to gain the full benefits of the scheme. The UK plans to focus more on Commonwealth countries including Sri Lanka, an area which has somewhat been neglected for several decades.

Indonesian Footwear Industry Development Center (BPIP) will collaborate with the Petra Christian University for the Indonesia Footwear Creative Competition (IFCC) 2019. The cooperation will allow Petra students to participate in training after completing selection. At least 40 students are allowed to participate in the workshops.

The event is initiated by BPI under the Directorate General of Small, Medium and Various Industries at the Industry Ministry. The center is located in Sidoarjo, East Java province and trains the business players to develop the national footwear industry. It also introduces footwear to the younger generation.

In 2018, IFCC showcased 689 works for design, photography and video-graphy categories. About 70 percent of the participants were school and university students, and the rest were general public.

The US has accused India of charging over 100 per cent tariffs on a large number of products while the US imposes nothing on the similar or same items. As a result of such trades, the US has lost for many years now – $800 billion a year on trade. Early this year, President Trump had supported the Indian decision to reduce the import tariff on high-end Harley-Davidson motorcycles from 100 per cent to 50 per cent. The Trump administration is fixing broken trade deals to protect the American workers.

Egypt has more than 1,500 apparel factories with an average production capacity of 500 million pieces a day. Egypt’s textiles and clothing sector is the most integrated on the African continent. The apparel sector is the country’s most important industrial sector, it represents 6.5 per cent of total non-petroleum. Apparel exports in 2018 rose 10 per cent compared to 2017. Around 50 per cent of the country’s apparel production goes to the US and 30 per cent to Europe.

The US is the main export destination for the Egyptian apparel industry. Apparel created within the Egyptian Qualified Industrial Zone (QIZ) is duty free in the US. Goods made in Egyptian QIZs can use fabrics imported from third countries and remain eligible for duty-free entry into the US market, provided 35 per cent of their value is added in Egypt, including a minimum of 10.5 per cent of Israeli content. Costs incurred in the US also count towards the 35 per cent threshold. Egypt also enjoys duty-free market access to the EU with a double transformation rule of origin. With its fabric base and sourcing proximity to Turkey (Turkish fabrics classify as local under regional cumulation of rules of origin), exports to the EU are likely to increase.

Guess is having a sale of its vintage pieces in the US. The collection will span jeans, denim jackets, leather jackets, T-shirts and sweatshirts for both men and women. Shoppers will be able to have dead-stock vintage T-shirts from the ’80s and ’90s Guess archives customized in store, using archival graphics to create bespoke vintage pieces. These are Guess archival pieces that have stood the test of time. The initiative ties into Guess’ wider sustainable fashion strategy -- the brand has signed up to the 2020 Circular Fashion System Commitment, the Global Fashion Agenda's pledge to encourage a circular fashion economy. Guess has developed a new capsule collection for men and women, with sustainable materials and manufacturing processes. The denim in the collection is produced with advanced technology that uses on an average about 30 per cent less water per garment and reduces chemical use throughout the production.

There has been an explosion of vintage culture over the past decade. Guess is not the only fashion brand rifling through its archives at the moment -- fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger recently launched a reboot of its vintage Coca-Cola collaboration, which was first created back in 1986. Perry Ellis launched the second installment of its Perry Ellis America capsule archival collection earlier this year.

Cotton Council International (CCI) partnered Chinese designer, Liu Wei, who specialises in using new technical fabrics, to launch the 2019/20 Cotton USA Uniform Collection during Beijing Fashion Week. Under the theme “With You,” Liu Wei has combined US cotton and green technology fabrics to interpret China’s professional uniform trends. The fashion show at China Fashion Week included 100 sets of professional uniforms featuring functional performance covering six professions: airlines, logistics, retail, formal business wear, civil servant and technicist. Some 800 participants watched the show.

After the fashion show, more than 200 representatives from 50 companies actively exchanged information and ideas on the challenges and opportunities in the Chinese uniform industry. Participants included: Beijing Yunyi Times Clothing Co; Haitian Materials Technology Co; Shandong Daiyin Group Renault Apparel etc. Following the launch of the uniform collections, a weeklong display and business meeting space was set up at Liuwei Studio to provide a cooperation platform and business discussion space for the uniform supply chain.

As an extension of the uniform project, Cotton USA will also strategically cooperate with Shanghai Occupational Uniform Expo in April to make a bigger impact throughout the uniform supply chain.

Europe is the key market for Tirupur. The EU and the US, together, constitute 70 per cent of the market for knitwear exporters. Tirupur boasts of a Rs 46,000 crore annual apparel business and houses the entire ecosystem that supports the industry. In the five years between 2012 and 2017, annual exports increased from Rs 10,500 crores to Rs 26,000 crores. The knitwear industry in Tirupur is largely in the micro, small and medium enterprises segment. However, its profile is witnessing gradual changes. Of the 1500-odd direct exporters, the number of exporting units with more than a Rs 100 crore turnover is more than what it was a few years ago and there are at least 20 units with more than a Rs 500 crore turnover.

Yet, all has not been well for the last three years. Export growth is not up to the expected level, investments have been need-based, and there is a struggle to be price-competitive. The incentives that the industry received before implementation of GST through different schemes worked out to nearly 13.2 per cent. This was reduced to 5.7 per cent after GST.

The inherent strengths of Tirupur, and its focus on efficiency and technology, have helped it sustain exports for the last two years.