The Bangladesh government led by PM Sheikh Hasina has announced a 50 billion taka ($590 million) incentive package for the country’s garment and other export-oriented sectors to help them cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Bangladesh’s garment industry, which employs millions of workers, and other industries have been hit hard due to the shutdown in the wake of outbreak. European and American buyers have cancelled orders from Bangladeshi garment factories that were valued at $2.5 billion so far.

The government’s stimulus plan is aimed at offsetting financial loss of the garment and other export oriented industries, the mainstay of the Bangladesh’s economy. The finance ministry has already released some guidelines for the use of the fund. The Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country, will issue a circular on the issue soon.

As per the guidelines the money can be used only to pay salaries of the employees to help them tide over the crisis and ensure they remain in the production line to facilitate recovery with the return of normalcy.

Lab-grown cotton and polyester made from air were among the 2020 winners of H&M Foundation’s Global Change Awards. Galy was the grand prize winner of for its Incredible Cotton innovation. The US and Brazil-based startup engineer cotton in a lab, which in turn lessens the burden placed on farmers. This lab-manufactured cotton takes 18 days to produce and releases 80 percent less water and gas emissions.

The program, which is in its fifth year, provides grants and educational resources for entrepreneurs establishing the future of sustainable and innovated fashion. This year, the Foundation received 5,893 entries from 175 countries. The five winners were selected by a panel of experts.

French fashion startup Fairbrics earned €150,000 ($164,000) for its Airwear product that converts greenhouse gas into sustainable polyester. Using literal air, it’s able to produce carbon negative synthetic fibers. Like Galy, the startup was also selected to participate in Fashion For Good’s Accelerator Program this year.

Other Global Change Awards winners include Feature Fibres by Werewool, a US-based startup that creates fabrics from protein DNA with natural colors, stretch and other performance properties. The team was awarded €250,000 ($273,000) for its compostable materials that have a circular life cycle.

Footwear legend Sergio Rossi has died at the age of 84, reportedly from Covid-19, after being hospitalised several days ago. One of the most influential luxury shoe designers of the 20th century, Rossi was born in 1935 in a part of Italy that’s known for its shoemaking expertise, San Mauro Pascoli.

Trained in Milan and Bologna, as well as by his own father, he began his independent business in the early 1950s. And in those early years was best known for the ultra-feminine sandals that he would spend the winter making to sell in beach resorts during the summer season. The brand he founded continues to be known for its exquisite sandals.

Rossi combined both a strong design aesthetic with a technical mastery that also made the label appeal to other fashion brands and saw it collaborating with big-hitters such as Dolce & Gabbana and Gianni Versace. Kering bought control of his firm in 1999 but sold it to private equity giant Investindustrial in 2015. The company relaunched the label in 2016 and has heavily referenced its archive since then, highlighting the enduring appeal of the designs produced under Rossi’s creative control.

Fespa has rescheduled its flagship Latin American event, Fespa Brasil, at the Expo Center Norte, in São Paulo from September 23-25, 2020. The event was earlier scheduled from March 18-21, 2020. It had to be postponed due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The event will now feature an expanded daily schedule, allowing visitors more time to enjoy the immersive experience they have come to expect from a Fespa event.

Fespa and APS Eventos Corporativos remain in close contact with exhibitors to ensure they deliver an event that is rewarding and productive in equal measure. All features, conferences and seminars of the event are part of FESPA’s commitment to sharing market insight and sector knowledge that are able to inspire the print community.

Redesigning Value, the updated theme for Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2020will navigate the current and future realities facing the industry as it weathers the storm of a global health and economic crisis. The event will be held from October12¬ to 13, 2020.

This new theme aligns with emerging realities and will further explore the negative impact of fashion, which have undeniably become more visible in recent weeks and months. The theme will prompt companies to create more resilient businesses by bringing sustainable practices to the core of the business models. By re-examining how they can strengthen their relationships with their supply chain partners, their own employees and also their customers, they can help brands discover a newfound purpose and a willingness to emerge on the other side more resilient than ever.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivel said the industry employing 12.9 million workers would die a slow death unless the government immediately announced an economic package for apparels.

AEPC has asked most of the sector are operating under extremely competitive margins in the range of 3-4 per cent, and are completely dependent on export benefits granted by the government. Given the disruptions in imports, the Council has requested for the extension of validity period of unutilised entitled value under export promotion schemes by six months. It also asked for the extension of the validity period of Advance Authorisation to two years from the existing one year along with the period for fulfilment of export obligations being increased to 3 years from the existing 18 months.

Exporters have pointed to detailed, industry specific measures taken by other governments as necessary cues for India to adopt immediately. AEPC says the government needs to help labor and industry both as flow of funds from either the banks or the customers have stopped

As the rapid spread of Covid-19 in all the countries has led to a cancellation of apparel export orders in China’s factories, the country’s cotton consumption is likely to decline by 0.6-1 million tonne in 2019-20. This was reflected in the cotton futures market in China. The most actively traded May cotton contract dipped below 10,000 yuan/mt on Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange in the afternoon of March 24, once to the lowest of 9,935 yuan/mt, which was close to the historical low of 9,890 yuan/mt and has declined by 4,515 yuan/mt from 14,450 yuan/mt appeared on January 14 before the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Affected by the export orders, China’s domestic cotton consumption is expected to fall by nearly 1 million tons soon. If the state cotton reserves do not prolong, the stock/consumption ratio is forecast to 55 per cent, up 7 per cent from previous season. Global cotton consumption may also see large reduction with the ongoing pandemic.

The Centre reimburse Rs 1,061 crore to Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and its sub-agent in Maharashtra for procuring cotton at the minimum support price in the state since 2014. The decision to give post facto approval to the MSP operations was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

The approval will help in price support operations to stabilise cotton prices, and is primarily aimed at safeguarding the interests of farmers and controlling any distress sale, the statement said. Maharashtra is the country’s second largest producer of cotton. The MSP operations were carried out by the CCI’s sub-agent, Maharashtra State Cooperative Cotton Growers Marketing Federation Limited (MSCCGMFL).

The Centre will spend Rs 312.93 crore to reimburse the losses to the CCI and the MSCCGMFL on sale of cotton procured during the cotton years (October-September) 2017-18 and 2018-19, and incur an additional expenditure of Rs 748.08 crore for 2014-15 and 2015-16.

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) has alleged that Walmart is selling women’s jeans with the brand’s distinct back pocket design. According to legal documents obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AEO claims its reputation for high-quality denim is being threatened by Walmart, which is selling similar jeans at a lower price than the original. The case, which claims violation of trademark law, was filed on March 25 at the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where AEO is headquartered.

In the lawsuit, the company notes that Walmart’s design is already causing confusion, with influencers and consumers explicitly calling out the similarities on social media. AEO stated that it has spent millions of dollars on branding to establish its rank in the industry. The company is asking Walmart to stop selling the jeans, destroy any remaining inventory and hand over the money generated from the alleged knockoffs.

Walmart responded to the allegations, stating that it did not create the design and that it plans to fight the case.

Six major buyers/brands including H&M, Inditex, M&S, PVH, Target and KIABI have assured to support Bangladesh’s RMG manufacturers in these tough times of COVID-19 by not cancelling their orders. On the other hand, India is not so lucky in this regard as so far only H&M has assured similar support to Indian apparel exporters. It is imperative to note that all the aforementioned six brands/ companies are also sourcing from India in a big way and cancelled existing orders have created panic among Indian apparel exporters.

H&M has assured its Bangladeshi vendors that they will receive payment for orders that have already been manufactured. The brand sources around S $ 4 billion of apparels from more than 225 manufacturing facilities of Bangladesh.

Inditex is also not walking away and are taking all that’s being produced. PVH has sent a clear confirmation of taking everything. Target confirmed with full assurance and reiterated that they would work as partners to come out of the crisis and they had no intention of cancelling any order.