Japan’s textile and apparel imports declined by 12.9 Y-o-Y and 15.9 per cent M-o-M to 197kt. Of these, imports from China declined by19.7 per cent Y-o-Y and 20.9 per cent M-o-M. Japan’s textile and apparel imports declined by 2.9 per cent Y-o-Y and 3.9 per cent from 2019 levels to 844kt during the period. Both in terms of import volume and value, Japan's textile and apparel import demand did not perform well in April, showing a sharp decline, while the decline in Japan's textile and apparel imports from China was greater than that of total imports.

As per a CCF Group report, In April, Japan imported most of its textiles and apparels from l China, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. From the perspective of YoY changes, in the major markets, except for the textile and apparel imports from Thailand and Myanmar, the others all declined to varying degrees, while the imports from China, Voyage, Malaysia and India dropped to a greater extent. As the imports from China accounted for a large proportion in the Japan's textile and apparel imports, it had a greater impact on Japan's total imports.

In recent years, the proportion of import volume and value of Japan's textile and apparel imported from China in total imports had a certain seasonal rule, accounting for the largest share in September or October every year, then gradually falling back to a relatively low level in April or May of the next year, and then fluctuating. Japan's textile and apparel imports fell sharply in April from a year earlier because of weak Japanese demand and seasonal effects.

Vertically integrated NFT-based metaverse real estate company and subsidiary of Canada’s Tokens.com, Metaverse Group has teamed up with Miami Fashion Week to host fashion week events in the metaverse on Fashion Street Estate. Miami Fashion Week is currently underway and will end on June 5.

The virtual grand opening will take place from June 3-5. Miami Fashion Week will be the second event hosted on the Fashion Estate this year. The metaverse event offers an immersive experience featuring fashion shows, catwalks, avatar models, and give attendees direct links to purchase virtual goods via marketplace for quick and seamless transactions.

The runway showcases Dressx in partnership with MTA Kollectiff. Additionally, inside of the L’Atelier, a reveal will take place where participants can register for a whitelisting spot for 'The Key' NFT later this year.

The Key is Miami Fashion Week’s membership which unlocks a host of benefits in both the physical and digital world. Guests will also find Barbara Hulanicki’s fashion illustration NFTs displayed on the walls of the L’Atelier and available for purchase. To wrap up the event, a sustainability panel with Dressx will be live streamed from the physical Miami Fashion Week location on the L’Atelier rooftop, encouraging both physical and virtual attendance on Sunday June 5, 2022.

New garment buyers from the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, Panama and South Africa among others plan to replace China with India as their major garment supplier. The extended COVID lockdowns in China have restricted supplies, forcing buyers to look for other options to diversify risks.

A buyer from South Africa, Lizzard Pty, which has 180 stores, wants to buy women's clothing, he said, while a buyer from Greece wants men's garments.v The Noida Apparel Export Cluster has 3,000 units with an annual turnover of ₹35,000 crore and employs around 9,00,000 people.

China eased COVID restrictions in Shanghai after two months of lockdown on Tuesday, but the country's "zero Covid" policy continues and nearly 650,000 will remain confined to their homes.

The entry of new buyers at Noida export cluster has also raised hopes for the Tirupur garment manufacturers.

India recorded its highest-ever textiles and apparel exports in FY22 at $44.4 billion, a rise of 41 per cent compared to FY21.

The US was the top export destination for the country's textiles and apparel shipments accounting for 27 per cent share, followed by the European Union, Bangladesh and the UAE. Export of ready-made garments grew by 31 per cent to $16 billion.

However, the high cotton prices are dampening the export opportunity that has opened up for Indian manufacturers.

NarendraGoenka, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) requested the government to calibrate cotton yarn exports and reduce export benefit on cotton and cotton yarn export from India.

He assured, the garment industry will make all efforts to achieve the export target of $20 billion this fiscal. However, cotton yarn prices have increased by almost 125 per cent in the last 18 months, he said.

Goenka requested the government to ban cotton exports for a few months to ensure availability to the industry as an immediate measure.

He also urged for the formation of a Textile Advisory Group by the government as an active interface between different stakeholders in the textiles value chain, besides alarming and mitigating the crisis like raw material storage, increasing productivity and containing inflation.

Appreciating the government's move to mitigate the crisis through Textiles Advisory Group, Goenka said, AEPC will look at the issues linked to productivity be it good quality seeds, introducing the new varieties, crop insurance to farmers and use of technology in farm optimization and produce management, water availability, arability for the crop.

Marking its foray into footwear rental, UK-based rental clothing service Bundlee has signed an exclusive deal with British footwear company Vivobarefoot.

The partnership allows customers to save time and money on purchasing new kids’ footwear.

Notably, the rental platform’s subscription model enables parents to save even £700 every year on their kid’s clothes, besides reducing customers’ carbon footprints by as much as 86 per cent with each rental.

More on the collaboration, Eve Kekeh, Founder, Bundlee, said that with Bundlee’s community growing exponentially, there wouldn’t have been a better time than now to unveil this new category.

Eve added that Vivobarefoot’s commitment to circularity and care for children’s feet makes it an ideal ally for Bundlee.

Founded in 2018, Bundleeoffers clothes for kids on a rental subscription basis.

Its prices range from £24 per month for curated essentials and £39 per month for 15 pieces from premium apparel brands, like Patagonia and Mori, amongst others.

Cotton prices fell by around Rs 4,000-Rs 5,000 per candy of 350 kg in sport market as commodity future market Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) slashed open position limits on cotton contracts to contain cotton prices and its speculative trading. MCX cotton contracts dropped around 2-3 per cent after tightening of the provisions.

MCX informed its members and traders that revised position limits will be effective from June 9, 2022. Traders’ overall open position limit has been cut from 3.80 lakh bales of 170 kg to 80,000 bales, out of which near month position will not exceed 20,000 bales. Currently near month position is fixed at 95,000 bales. Members’ overall open position limit has been reduced from 38 lakh bales to 8 lakh bales, while the near month position has been cut from 9.50 lakh bales to 2 lakh bales. As per the MCX circular, near month positions should not exceed one-fourth of overall positions.

Cotton traded at around ₹95,000-96,000 per candy of 356 kg. According to the traders, cotton prices have reduced in the last couple of days as demand from spinning mills reduced. MCX June cotton contract was at ₹44,100 per bale after a decline of 2.58 per cent. July contract also reduced by 2.48 per cent to ₹43,650 per bale.

Industry sources said that it was a long pending demand to contain speculative trading which was fuelling spot cotton prices. Sanjay Jain, Former Chairman, Confederation of Textile Industries (CITI), says, MCX’s decision will not impact cotton prices much as open interest positions are very low on either side.

A Bangladeshi delegation comprising leaders of the Bangladesh Employers' Federation (BEF), Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) met ILO Director-General Guy Ryder at the ILO headquarters in Geneva to urge him to highlight the issue of ethical pricing of garment items in different global forums to ensure a sustainable industry.

Faruque Hassan, President, BGMEA emphasized on the need to ensure fair prices of garment items to make the apparel industry more sustainable, positively impacting the well-being of garment workers.

Production costs in garment manufacturing have gone up due to the spiralling prices of yarn, chemicals and other raw materials and high shipping charges, but prices offered by the buyers do not reflect the reality and rationality, he said.

The delegation apprised the ILO director-general of the current situation of the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh, challenges and opportunities.

They also highlighted how the RMG industry of Bangladesh has gone through the tangible transformation in the areas of workplace safety, labour standards, and environmental sustainability.

With these achievements, Bangladesh has earned the global accolades and recognition as one of a safe and ethical apparel sourcing destinations in the world, they said.

An OTB Group company, Diesel has roped in EraldoPoletto as its new global CEO.

As per a Spin Off report, Polette will succeed Massimo Piombini, who after completing the mission of defining Diesel's strategy and repositioning plan, assigned to him by founder and chairman Renzo Rosso and the group's board, will hand over the company’s leadership to Poletteefrom July 1, 2022.

Poletto, CEO, North America, has already contributed to the development in the market of the new strategic direction taken by Diesel. The manager has 30 years of experience in the luxury and retail sectors and has held important positions in his career as, among others, CEO and brand president of the footwear brand Stuart Weitzman (Tapestry Group) and CEO of Salvatore Ferragamo and Furla, leading the evolution of the brands globally.

Donald Kohler, a manager with significant international experience in the fashion industry, where he has held such important roles as President, Burberry Americas, CEO, Americas & Chief Retail Officer, Ferragamo, and President, Ann Taylor Group, has been named to head the North American market.

A strong pillar of its economy in the past, Nigeria’s textile industry is currently on the brink, having shrunk from 175 firms in 1985 to less than 20 in 2022. The sector’s employment has declined from 137,000 jobs in 1996 to less than 20,000 now. Nigeria’s textiles exports suffered a huge setback between 2003 and 2008. Sinking to its lowest level in 2006, textile exports has sunk almost zero today.

The Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA), held a press conference recently to address the state of poor competiveness. Led by Folorunsho Daniyan, President, NITMA the conference emphasized on the need for urgent government intervention to keep the industry alive.

Discouraging imports and boosting local consumption

Data released by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics show, finished products dominated Nigeria’s textile imports in 2021. The all-commodity group import index of Nigeria’s textile products increased 0.47 per cent. Highest increase on the index was recorded by textile and textile articles followed by boilers, machinery and appliances, parts thereof and wood and articles of wood, wood charcoal and articles.

Disturbed by the report, Ali Baba, President, National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) said, the latest report released by the NBS shows the surprise lead taken by the textile materials in the list of country’s imported commodities in 2021. NITMA estimates, over 95 per cent of Nigeria’s domestic textile market is dominated by imported fabrics and clothing materials.

Need for strict measures to boost exports

Daniyan says, the Nigerian textile industry suffers from high production costs that make products uncompetitive. Further, products are vulnerable to unrestrained smuggling and counterfeiting of Made in Nigeria textiles, poor patronage in spite of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Executive Order of 2017. Daniyan urged the government to provide a conducive environment for the revival of textile industry and manufacturing activities in general. It also criticized the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for being ineffective in combating smuggling cheap textile products largely from China and other Asian countries.

The association urged NCS to adopt strict measures like conducting raids on smugglers’ warehouses in Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Onitsha, and other cities. It also demanded the establishment of a Presidential Task Force of textile manufacturers and union to seize the goods smuggled into the country. Daniyan emphasized on the ability of African Continental Free Trade Agreement, (AFCFTA) to elude Nigeria of the illegal textile imports that can be produced locally.

Revive Kaduna complex and attract new investments

Peter Obi, Presidential Aspirant, Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) says, Nigeria can earn more foreign exchange by reviving the textile complex in Kaduna. Agreeing to this, Senator Shehu Sani also emphasizes on the need to boost employment in the industry.

One big challenge faced by sector is the huge shortage of raw materials like cotton, says Erneka Offor, CEO, Acting Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC). Government’s slack in policies in cotton, textile and garment sectors is impacting growth . Nigeria also fails to attract new investments due to unproductive operating environment and infrastructural challenges like power cuts from public power sources and high diesel and oil costs. Marketing challenges like smuggling and dumping of textile products also make the industry uncompetitive, adds Offor. Any further decline may cause it to lose several direct and indirect jobs, he warns.

This latest edition of Cotton This Month shows, a decrease in the size of cotton crop in top cotton producing countries like India, Argentina and South Africa that has resulted in consumption outpacing production in the 2021-22 season.

Consumption to exceed production by 265,000 tons

Yield of smaller-than-expected crops will lead to consumption exceeding production by about 265,000 tons. Production during the year is projected to reach 26.13 million tons while consumption is projected to reach 26.09 million tons. Total area under cotton cultivation will decrease 1 per cent during the year to 32.78 million hectare

To assess the impact of rising consumption, the secretariat uses stocks-to-use ratio that measures available cotton stocks as a share of cotton mill use to quantify the relationship between cotton supply and demand. Cotton price rise when the stock-to-use ratio declines due to tighter supply. In contrast, the ratio rises when supply exceeds demand, pulling cotton prices downwards. The total area under cotton cultivation also impacts prices.

Cotton forecasts to resume in August

The Secretariat plans to suspend publication of price projections and resume in August after re-evaluating the price situation. The current volatile market makes it difficult to predict accurate figures. Earlier too, it had suspended price forecasting in 2010-11 season of unprecedented high price and volatility.

Cotton This Month is published by the International Cotton Advisory Committee at the beginning of a month with Cotton Update published mid-month. The mid-month ‘Cotton Update’ contains updated information on supply/demand estimates and prices.

Transparent information on cotton production

An association of cotton producing, consuming and trading countries, the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) was formed in 1939. ICAC helps member strengthen global economy by providing transparent technical information on cotton production. The Association also acts as a forum for discussing issues covering the cotton supply chain from farm to textile manufacturing. It will provide a free access to its cutting-edge technologies like the voice-based app and virtual technology cotton training program. The intergovernmental commodity body covering cotton, ICAC is recognized by the United Nations.