Global rights group, Clean Clothes Campaign has accused RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) of failing to honor its commitment to recruit a boiler inspector. However, as per Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) claims, RSC remains committed to boiler safety inspection program first initiated as a pilot in 2018.

Accord brands and unions have agreed with the BGMEA to roll-out of the boiler safety program at the start of the RSC's establishment, the association said. The association said, RSC has also committed to recruit an independent chief safety officer as mentioned in the Transition Agreement. However, BGMEA falsely claimed that the RSC is founded on the core principle that its governance structure brings together all critical stakeholders in one single platform with equal voice and authority, said the rights group.

In reality, of the RSC's 18 governing board directors, 12 are representatives of financially-vested companies while workers' representatives make up only a third of its members. Moreover, the BGMEA claimed that RSC remains fully committed to a high level of transparency as practiced under the Accord.

In reality, unlike the Accord, the RSC's website, six months after the organization's inception, provides none of the following information: factory-specific remediation data, aggregate reports, nor minutes of its board meetings, it said.

Responding to these allegations, Rubana Huq, President, BGMEA, said, the association cannot afford to have unsubstantiated commitments to build safety in Bangladesh, especially when the industry is key to its survival.

Huq also denied stopping the pilot program for boiler safety and said the government has laid out inspection standards and engineers ready to engage with RSC on boiler inspections.

As per a study based on Google search data, luxury leather goods brand Louis Vuitton tops the list of most sought-after brands in 47 countries worldwide. Compiled by Money.co.uk, the study ranks Gucci in second place as the most popular fashion brands in 13 countries, far behind Louis Vuitton. The Italian brand — which made the news several times this year, notably with the launch of its mini-series co-directed by Gus Van Sant — tops searches in Japan, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Italy.

In third place, Chanel is the most popular brand in 12 countries. The French fashion brand doesn’t take the number one spot anywhere in Europe, but storms ahead in Asia, notably in Bali, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos and Thailand.

Calvin Klein tops the list in 11 countries, including Russia, Ukraine and Chili. Coach takes sixth place and is the most popular label in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, while Loewe — further down the top 10 — is a favourite in the US and Canada.

Though Liberty Retail — the company that operates Liberty London’s flagship store and webstore — increased its revenue and gross profit in FY 2019-20, it still made an operating and net loss for the period, albeit both of those latter figures were narrower than in the previous year. As per a Fashion Network report, the company’s revenue rose to £93.14 million from £85.22 million during the year while its flagship sales per square foot rose to £1,309 from £1.234. Its gross profit reached £45.3 million, up from £42.8 million and its operating loss was £4.19 million, less than the loss of £8.53 million a year earlier. Its pre-tax loss was £6.7 million, down from £8.58 million and the net loss was £8.34 million after a loss of £11.24 million in the previous year.

The company continued to refurbish its flagship store during the year, refreshing the dress fabrics and fragrance areas, as well as other parts of the store that customers don't see. And its Liberty Online operation saw "significant growth" due to improvements in logistics processes, website functionality, stock range and availability.

Its parent company Liberty Zeta remains committed to supporting it and has accessed extra financing too. Liberty signed up for an additional credit facility of £15 million back in July linked to the UK government’s COVID business support scheme. And its shareholders have a further £5 million contractually committed should its financial covenants look shaky.

In the current financial year, Liberty’s website experienced a significant increase in demand, although this hasn't fully offset the impact of closing its store.

As per a case study by Swathi Shivanand of the Alternative Law Forum, the state government's failure to protect labor rights and enforce existing provisions have left more than 1,000 workers from a garment factory in Karnataka jobless as its illegal shutdown led to thousands of employees being forced to resign. The case study, titled 'Laid-off During the Pandemic' accuses the government of failing at multiple levels, starting from its complicity in keeping wages low at Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000 per month, even as it offered incentives to companies, says a Deccan Herald report.

In May, the factory decided to shut down without giving prior notification employees as mandated by the Industrial Disputes Act. Over the course of the next two months, it decided to break the Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU) and also tried to prevent them from protesting on the premises of factory by filing an injunction.

The government officials, however, failed to see through the company's act of forcing workers to resign. Only the employees who withstood the threats and sat on 50-day protest demanding the reopening of the factory saw some success in terms of better compensation package by company, whose illegalities remained unquestioned.

The study recommended the government to introduce counselling services in garment factories to make mental health care a priority and spread awareness on their rights.

It also called for strengthening of the labor departments, to enable inspections and examine legalities of factory closures besides upward revision of minimum wages to reflect the new uncertainties and risks taken by workers.

COVID-19 has motivated many regional RMG exporters across India to focus on the domestic market. As per Tribune India, the domestic apparel market pegged at around Rs 3.25 lakh crore is currently three times bigger than exports market. On the other hand, apparel exports declined to Rs 52,158.80 crore during April-November as against Rs 70,466 crore during the same period previous fiscal.

This decline was a result of subdued demand in exports markets and intense competition from Bangladesh, Vietnam, China and Pakistan. As per reports, exports declined by 91 per cent, 66 per cent, 35 per cent and 22 per cent in April, May, June, July, August and November respectively. They further registered a marginal decline of 1 per cent in dollar terms on year-on-year, due to the lockdown, slowdown and subdued demand. However, exports grew by 10 per cent growth in September and a 6 per cent growth in October.

However, now people have started making purchases in the domestic market due to which, many apparel makers have shifted focus to the domestic market, explains Harish Dua, Managing Director, Ludhiana-based KG Exports.

Various factors including a ban on Chinese cotton by the US, a sudden surge garments orders, additional stocking up by brands and increased exports to Tirupur’s competitors including Vietnam and Bangladesh have led to yarn shortage for garments exporters. However, Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA) has alleged that mills were withholding yarn supplies impacting the export business. As per Raja M Shanmugam, President, Tirupur Exporters Association, the current decision of mills will certainly impact garment exports and lead to job losses.

However, mills have refuted these allegations. According to Prabhu Dhamodharan, Convenor, Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF), the current yarn shortage is mainly a result of sudden inventory buildup by companies across the value chain, both in exports and domestic markets in the textile sector. He views this a temporary phase and urges exporters not to panic on the availability.

P Nataraj, Managing Director, KPR Mills also advises exporters to stop diverting or hoarding cotton yarn.

Struggling UK footwear retailer Clarks’ shareholders has approved its takeover by the private equity firm LionRock Capital. As per Fashion Network, the £100 million deal is the final part of a rescue packaged that hinged on the business securing a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA). That CVA was approved by the company’s creditors last month and will ensure all Clarks’ 320 stores will survive for now.

The rescue deal is expected to be completed in the New Year. It will see Hong-Kong based LionRock Capital take a controlling stake in the near-two-century family-owned business. The Clark family will remain invested in the business. According to the LionRock, the agreement will enable Clarks to position the business for future long-term sustainable growth and deliver its strategy to revitalize the brand.

The approved CVA will allow 60 of Clarks’ stores to forgo their rent, while rent will be turnover-based at the remaining 260. Earlier in the year, Clarks announced plans to cut around 900 corporate jobs worldwide with over 100 jobs going at the company’s HQ in Somerset, UK. However, the company noted it plans to create around 200 new roles.

As per the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), the 2020-21 cotton season is likely to end by March 2021 due to heavy arrivals in the market as cotton growers fear another lockdown. Reports suggest CCI has procured around 67 lakh bales of cotton till date which is almost double the amount of cotton it procured in the year-ago period. The cotton was procured for Rs 19,048.87 crore.

As the pace of arrivals is fast, farmers do not expect cotton prices to rise further this season, says PK Agrawal, Chairman and Managing Director, CCI. He adds, cotton prices are currently ruling at Rs 6,000 per quintal while the MSP is at Rs 5,825. Moreover, cotton growers faced quality issues this season, especially with the long staple cotton of 30 mm which has compelled them to sell their staples hurriedly.

Delay in rains as well as excessive rains also impacted cotton crop in Telangana, Maharashtra and Saurashtra, Agarwal added. The crop in Maharashtra was hit by the pink bollworm, while heavy unseasonal rains affected the crop in Saurashtra as well as Telangana.

Of all, Telangana farmers sold 21.86 lakh bales to the CCI while Maharashtra farmers sold 10.99 lakh bales. In Gujarat, 38,021 farmers brought 1.92 lakh bales. Overall, 12.66 lakh farmers have sold 65.10 lakh bales to the CCI, for which they were Rs 19,048.87 crore as per the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 5,825 per quintal.

CCI is in the process of procuring more cotton from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka. However, it may not be in a position to acquire more than 100-120 lakh bales, against the original estimate of 200 lakh bales, because of a poor crop.

The association has retained crop production at 356 lakh bales for 2020-21. It expects cotton exports to fall by about 10 per cent to 54 lakh bales from an earlier projection of 60 lakh bales.

Held on December 22, 2020 in the Shanxi International member centre, the China Textile Innovation annual conference focused on the development of textile fashion. The conference signed 12 projects, with a total investment of more than 100 billion yuan. Shanxi signed a contract to invest 100 billion yuan at the meeting. The Shanxi provincial party committee and government have made great efforts to create a good business environment in recent years. Many domestic textile enterprises have come to Shanxi for investment and development, said Gao Yong, Party Secretary and Secretary General, China Textile Industry Federation.

As a province with large coal resources, Shanxi has unique advantages in developing fiber new material industry. In the past few years, the province has been actively deployed in the fields of coal chemical industry and chemical fiber industry, which has provided a good industrial foundation for the development of high-tech fiber and high-performance fiber industry in Shanxi. It can make a big contribution in building a complete industrial chain of new fiber materials, Yong added.

Sun Ruizhe, President, China Textile Industry Federation, said Shanxi is much more convenient to handle various matters than before. In November this year, the association launched project to develop the data flow ecological park, and give full play to Shanxi's advantages in data flow. Added He Han, General Manager, Shanxi Data Flow Ecological Park Operation and Management Co.

According to he Han, as the first data flow ecological park in China, Shanxi data flow ecological park takes data flow as the production factor, and makes every effort to create the national Internet traffic price depression by implementing the flow subsidy innovation policy. And by attracting all kinds of enterprise groups and entrepreneurial groups that have demand for Internet traffic such as e-commerce services, online education and well-known brands, it promotes the formation of a data flow ecology with intelligent data integration, perfect industrial chain, talent gathering and rich business forms, so as to contribute to the transformation and development of Shanxi Province.

Tipu Munshi, Commerce Minister, Bangladesh has urged India to reconsider anti-dumping and anti-circumvention duties imposed on jute and jute cloth imports from the country and also inform it before imposing an export ban or restrictions on essential commodities. Munshi says, recent notification by India’s Ministry of Finance authorizing customs officials to ask for documents for imports to determine the meeting of value addition criteria and denying preferential duty was creating problems.

However, Piyush Goyal, Commerce & Industry Minister assured Munshi of taking these steps to address the issue by creation of adequate buffer stocks and increasing the area of cultivation of products such as onion and potatoes. Goyal suggested both governments should set high benchmarks on how to capture a larger global share in the apparel and textile industry. According to him, both governments try to expand textile and apparel exports five times to provide jobs, increase forex reserves and develop both economies.