Imports of cheaper cotton garments from China may impact the entire textile value chain of India. Traders want quick action to protect the domestic industry, trade, and farmers.

Recycled yarn prices have remained stable. It is mainly used in home furnishing and to make coarse fabrics. Demand for recycled yarn is yet to pick up as there were no activities on the export front. Exporters are struggling to get new orders due to the economic slowdown in foreign markets. The ban on coal-based dyeing units in Panipat has been relaxed till the end of December this year, thus recycled yarn supply remained stable in the market.North India’s cotton yarn market witnessed a mixed trend. Prices remained stable in Delhi, while Ludhiana noted a fall of Rs5 per kg due to imports of cheaper cotton garments in India. The cotton yarn market is not getting support despite an improvement in cotton prices.However mills are making efforts to increase yarn prices.

North India’s cotton prices increased due to the low crop estimate and cloudy weather. North India’s cotton production estimate for the new marketing season has been lowered by around ten lakh bales. The region comprises Punjab, Haryana, upper Rajasthan and lower Rajasthan.

Turkey has a target of becoming one of the top three textile exporting countries in the world.

The country is already one of the top five textile exporting countries and overtook countries like South Korea and Italy to claim the fifth spot.The industry has increased its share in global textile exports to an all-time-high of three percent. Turkish textile companies are exporting their products to more than 200 countries.

Turkish suppliers want to be recognised not only for their manufacturing but also for their in-house brands.Turkey is well known for near-shore manufacturing capabilities that are of high quality, The European Union, UK, US, and the Middle East and Gulf countries are Turkey’s biggest clothing export markets. Europe accounts for 65 per cent of Turkey’s clothing exports. Other big customers are Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, France and the US. Turkey’s proximity to Europe means that retailers and brands receive orders in less time than locations such as Bangladesh and China.

The average Turkish lead time is between 45 and 60 days. By contrast, clothing orders from Bangladesh can take between 90 and 120 days. Most suppliers in Turkey have their own design team. Investments in digitalisation have helped to reduce travel, cost of making samples and enabled getting approvals online.

Chinese startup Sewingtech develops robots to automate garment production.

Sewingtech is focusing on the labor shortage in the textile and apparel industry with the aim of improving efficiency. Using these robots, even an ordinary sewing worker with no expertise can operate two machines at the same time so production efficiency will be at least doubled.

Robots are already employed in the labor-intensive sector to make garments, but their use has been limited to simple operations such as laser cutting machines and electric sewing machines.Fabrics can easily stretch or crease. In addition, finishing products -- such as button sewing and positioning of buttonholes -- requires a fair amount of skill.Automated sewing robots can improve production, from fabric treatment to sewing. Some 1,70,000 apparel makers employ 8.26 million workers in China, of which sewing workers make up 60 per cent of the production workforce.

China's textile and apparel industry is in rapid decline as many production orders have been shifted to southeast Asia. In addition, China’s sewing factories are still dependent on skilled workers. But training and mentoring them is not easy, and workers' rising salaries are squeezing company profits.China’s strength lies in its light industry supply chains, with automation becoming increasingly important if the country is to remain competitive in the global garment industry.

The European Commission plans to set a limit to fast fashion imports. Currently, each person in the European Union discards annually about 11 kilograms of textiles, mostly clothing. Clothing that has been worn only seven to 10 times is frequently discarded.

The European Commission is therefore developing a textile strategy.According to the proposed plan, all textiles sold on the EU market by 2030 must be durable and recyclable.Clothing should be made from eco-friendly fibers, which are recycled fibers, free of harmful compounds and produced with environmental and social rights in mind.

This includes a reduction in the flow of fast textile production chains into the EU.The strategy elaborates on the following goals: to reduce the number of collections per year, take responsibility, act to minimize one's carbon and environmental footprint.Another major issue is the disposal of textile waste. Textile consumption is the third most negatively affected factor within the European Union, after water and land use, and the fourth most detrimental factor on the environment and climate change at large.

Beginning from 2025, separate pickup of textile waste will be mandated everywhere in the European Union. Since textile waste is a quickly growing export item, in particular to non-European countries, the EU has proposed restrictions on that as well.

The knitwear segment has retained its position as Bangladesh’s biggest exports earner in the readymade garment sector.

The knitwear segment overtook the woven sub-sector for the first time in the financial year of 2007-08 and held the pole position until 2010-11 before woven outran the knitwear segment in 2011-12 to continue its dominance till 2019-20.However, in 2020-21, knitwear was able to recapture its lost glory (as the highest export earner) and continued to outrun woven in the last fiscal year as well. In the first quarter of the current financial year, when overall export earnings showed a falling trend, the knitwear segment grew nine per cent year-on-year and even during the pandemic knitwear export was able to put up a good show.The use of knitwear items has risen as consumers spent more time at home.

Policy supports like cash incentives and utility have helped the entrepreneurs invest in the knitwear sub-sector including the backward linkage yarn, fabric and dyeing segments.Besides, changing patterns in fashion and buyers' preferences for quick delivery of products due to the long lead time caused by Covid-induced lengthy transportation also pushed buyers to source knit products from Bangladesh. Composite units having their own knitting, dyeing, sewing and finishing facilities are the other strengths of the country's knitwear sector.

Superdry’s profit this fiscal has increased. Profits have been rising thanks to women’s apparel and recycled products.Women’swear accounts for 51 per cent of Superdry’s revenue, up from 41 per cent in October 2021. Organic and recycled products accounted for more than half of the sales in the 22 weeks up to October, up 11 percentage points year-on-year.

All indicators point to brand health moving in the right direction: revenue, marketing, and sustainability messaging are all moving in the right direction. Superdry will produce enough organic cotton to meet all of the company’s cotton needs, making it self-sufficient in the face of rising prices for the material. Superdry is converting farmers in India to organic practices, is buying their seeds, is helping them with that process. The next focus is wholesale which accounts for 37 per cent of Superdry’s annual sales.

Premium British fashion brand Superdry has products like fragrances, body sprays and body plus hair washes.The UK market represents around 50 per cent of Superdry’s weekly sales and the US around ten per cent.Despite the profit increase, Superdry is cautious due to increased cost inflation and the worsening conflict in Ukraine, as operating margins are certain to come under pressure.

The answer is probably a big yes! Compare fashion brands that invested strategically in omnichannel with 89% retention rate versus brands that had lukewarm omnichannel strategies scoring a 33% retention rate and you have your answer. Brands and retailers are moving quickly to supply more seamless omnichannel shopping experiences—but customers are moving faster. Many apparel companies however find their brick-and-mortar stores are still essential. Their insight has been that more of the best customers are using a combination of offline and online channels when they shop. Post pandemic, this is often the emerging truth as footfalls to brick and mortar stores are returning to being on track.

During the pandemic, fashion retailers opted for e-commerce solutions for survival. The e-commerce sector received a notable boost from the pandemic thanks to the strong emphasis on social distancing, safety measures, and a convenient return policy. For retailers and fashion brands an omnichannel approach is preferred over a multichannel approach because the advantages are so many. The lifestyle sector has always been keen on adopting an omnichannel approach as they wished to offload the seasonal collections at the entire markup. In it, the retailers have effectively bridged the gap between offline and online models with a typical view of customers in omnichannel retail.

Selling off newest collections quickly

Omnichannel provides fashion brands huge visibility across various online and offline sales channels. This is extremely beneficial for fashion brands because older products/seasonal collections become obsolete. Here, omnichannel retail helps open up by offering much-needed product visibility. The visibility helps them offload all their collections, thereby facilitating garnering maximum revenues with ease and convenience. Fashion retailers have also considered the vital aspects of fashion, i.e., the speed to plug aspect. Customers expect brands to deliver products as quickly as possible. An omnichannel retail solution then becomes the ideal. Additionally, in India, fashion brands have the advantage of bypassing seasonal demands in areas that don’t have extreme climates and not have the onus of physical placements in areas that do.

Apparel in comparison to other products is most likely to be bought online

Customers are more likely to shop for apparel online as compared to other products. Two core factors that make online fashion immensely appealing to customers- lower prices than other sectors and apparel is straight forward to pack and ship across multiple pincodes in India due to easy logistics. Unfortunately, industries like electronics and luxury products (jewelry & watches) fail to supply such convenience. Larger electronic products cannot be shipped quickly, and hence they fail to make a significant impact like fashion. On the opposite hand, the high price point makes people wary when purchasing luxury items like jewelry and watches online. Online shopping embraces instant gratification. Customers also tend to get more when shopping online as they get huge discounts and free shipping on products.

Of course, fashion brands have to keep continually evolving their customer journeys and experiences to not only be relevant but also attractive in the moment of trends that flit in and out. Technology, particularly AI will lead the way towards more personalisation, ease of access to product information, trials and returns and last but not the least, a great sense of value purchase in a market that is so value and price sensitive.

Cambodia’s apparel exports to Canada increased 20 per cent in the first eight months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. Canada is the third largest market of Cambodia for apparel exports and has a share of nine per cent in Cambodia’s apparel exports. Cambodia is in fourth position in Canada’s apparel imports. Bangladesh and Vietnam are in the second and third positions. China is in the top position.

Cambodia’s free trade agreement with South Korea has come into effect. The free trade agreement may help boost Cambodia’s apparel exports to South Korea. The agreement also presents opportunities for value-added investments in Cambodia’s downstream processing industries through a plus one business model, in which South Korean companies could expand their supply chain network developed in not only China but also Vietnam or Thailand. South Korea has a great demand for high-value winter clothing and denim. Other potential products that have good demand in the country include non-leather footwear, home textiles, jute and jute products etc.This year, Cambodia’s apparel exports to South Korea may touch pre-Covid levels despite the volatility in monthly shipments.The FTA will remove tariffs on 95 per cent of products imported from Cambodia, while Cambodia will eliminate duties on 93 per cent of imported goods.

Menswear is a booming business. In some cases it’s growing faster than women’s. Expanding into menswear simply allows brands to reap the benefits of both phenomena. There has been exponential growth in the men’s designer ready-to-wear market that presents an opportunity for womenswear brands to move into the category and create organic brand expansion.

There has been more permissiveness in fashion, more fluidity to shopping contributing to this crossover, but the market opportunity seems to be the overwhelming driving factor. Most brands have expanded with a focus on individual offerings for men’s and women’s rather than with unisex assortments. Category expansions also allow labels to position themselves as lifestyle brands and boost business growth even when wholesale is stagnant.

Blurred lines

Menswear has ventured into a space that is less constrained by traditional masculinity and its sartorial prescriptions. The line between menswear and womenswear is fading. Customers are increasingly shopping cross-categories and there’s been a rise in genderless fashion. As shopping habits continue to evolve to reflect customer preferences and expanding identities, the industry will respond in kind.There are specific nuances in pattern grading and cutting in categories like tailoring that are in place to properly fit the traditional female and male forms, and splitting product into men’s and womenswear allows brands to overcome this hurdle without having to revert to oversized everything or see their customers settle with a standardized fit. The same pair of jeans can be offered as both menswear and womenswear with different fits accommodating varying frames, then the customer can decide which fits them the best.At some retail stores, products are merchandized based on the overall aesthetic—there are no women’s or men’s departments, or gendered changing rooms.

Fluid situation

However, the average consumer, at this moment, still has a mental model that they use when buying clothing.When browsing through an expansive assortment of over 1,000 brands, there’s a simplicity and ease in organizing clothing by men’s and womenswear departments because it aligns with how people typically think of clothes and navigate online and brick and mortar stores. Retailers have their own logistical barriers to overcome too. Most are split into men’s and women’s buying teams, each with a budget and responsible for sales in their own areas. At the same time there’s an increasing collective growing consciousness about gender identity that will continue to evolve this thinking as well. As oxymoronic as menswear and womenswear labels may feel at the moment, they also seem like the most inclusive answer.

Consumers, regardless of gender identity, deserve to find a product that fits them and is made for their bodies, and even though sometimes labels can be triggering in terms of gender dysphoria, part of progress is adopting the system to then be able to challenge it. Maybe at the moment what progress looks like is category expansions and men’s and women’s sizing, but the next frontier is coming soon, one, hopefully, that is less reliant on labels—as much as these labels reaffirm the binary, the products that come with them (men’sdresses and skirts and platform shoes) often help challenge it.

Indian Textile Trade fair will be held in Bangladesh, January 11 to 14, 2023. The fair is being organized by the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI), which is expecting a footfall of 20,000 including garment exporters, manufacturers, importers, distributors, wholesalers, fashion designers and textile businessmen.

SGCCI is the oldest apex body of Gujarat, with a total focus on growth and development of trade and industry of the southern Gujarat region. Bangladesh imports textile fabrics from different countries and Surat hopes to be a part this textile fabric supply. India can double its merchandise exports to Bangladesh if the latter reduces its peak tariff of 25 per cent on 415 goods under the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

India has export competitiveness in these 415 goods. However, India meets hardly 22 per cent of the total import demand of Bangladesh in these 415 goods as the 25 per cent peak import tariff levied by Bangladesh acts as an impediment for Indian exports.These 415 products include denim, woven fabrics, iron and steel articles, paper and paperboard, fresh grapes, electric conductors, gems and jewelry, plastic products, cardamom, footwear, tricycles, washing and cleaning chemicals, ceramic sinks, stranded wires and cables etc.