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Cotton crop spread over three lakh hectares has been damaged in Punjab due to whitefly infestation, the government said on Tuesday. During the Kharif season this year, whitefly infestation was reported in cotton crop in Punjab and Haryana.
The Punjab government has reported damage to cotton crop in 3.32 lakh hectares, especially in eight cotton growing districts of Fazilka, Bhatinda, Mansa, Shri Muktsar Sahib, Sangrur, Barnala, Faridkot and Moga, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said during Question Hour. He said the Haryana government has ordered a special ‘gridawari’ (record of land cultivation) to assess the losses in cotton due to whitefly attack. The two governments have so far not submitted memorandum of financial assistance under National Disaster Response Fund, Singh said.
His deputy in the ministry Sanjeev Balyan said the central government monitored the pest situation in the country and sends advisories to the states for effective action. Experts are also sent for advising the government and the farming community to tackle pests as they can cause serious damage to crops, he added.
Erratic weather played a crucial role in the growth of the whitefly. If the temperature had been lower in the winter, it would have kept the incidence down, as ground frost helps to break the whitefly’s life cycle. Punjab has announced a relief package of Rs 600 crores for farmers affected but farmers say this would amount to about Rs 8,000 an acre, against their actual cost of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 an acre.
American Textile Recycling Service (ATRS), textile recycler and a leader in clothing donation programs and services has announced the acquisition of a clothing and shoe collection facility in Indianapolis. The Muncie-based donation bin operation was formerly owned and operated by Retail Management Specialists of Eastern Missouri, LLC which operates Red Racks and Team Thrift stores in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Utah.
The 21,000 sq. ft. Indianapolis facility has operated for two years and supports the Indiana State Department of Disabled American Veterans through a clothing and shoe donation fundraising program. The newly acquired facility operated 144 bins throughout the Anderson, Marion, Muncie, and Indianapolis areas, all collecting gently used, unwanted clothing donations on behalf of DAV Indiana.
ATRS is on a fast growth track to be nationwide by 2025 and provides free textile recycling solutions in 10 states and 28 metropolitan areas across the country. Partnerships with municipalities, property management companies like Brixmor and Simon, schools, churches and local retailers create high traffic destination locations for families and local residents to drop off and properly dispose of gently used, out of season, unneeded clothing, shoes, toys and household textiles.
Atrscorp.com
Textile conglomerate Arvind has been honoured with the National Energy Conservation Award 2015 in textiles category. The company has bagged the award for second year in a row on account of energy savings achieved through various initiatives by its unit situated at Santej in Gujarat.
The Ministry of Power gives out 'National Energy Conservation Award' on National Energy Conservation Day celebrated annually on December 14. The award was conferred for reducing 13 per cent consumption in thermal energy and 10 per cent reduction in specific consumption in electrical energy compared to the last financial year.
The various initiatives to conserve energy included replacement of TFL with energy efficient LED lighting, installation of energy efficient compressors, VFDs in various machines, using day lights in production halls and replacement of existing pumps with energy efficient pumps. The thermal energy savings where achieved by Economizers in boilers, trap replacement, thermal insulations, heat recovery from hot effluent, the company said.
www.arvind.com
Lectra, the world leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to industries using soft materials—fabrics, leather, technical textiles and composite materials has appointed Burak Susoy as Director, Lectra Turkey and the Middle East.
Fashion and automotive are two important markets for Lectra in Turkey and the Middle East, a region that has major assets despite an uncertain context. Lectra is increasing investment in these countries because it believes in local companies’ potential for success.
Particularly in Turkey, Lectra’s premium positioning aligns with its customers and their expectations. Many of these manufacturers are aiming upmarket, striving to reach a new level of excellence or developing their own brands. Their activity now covers the whole value chain, specifically design and product development. Product lifecycle management solutions, such as Lectra Fashion PLM, fit perfectly within the strategic plans of a growing number of Turkish companies.
Burak Susoy started his career in 1995 at Ricoh’s Turkish distributor. He joined Lectra Turkey as a sales manager in 1999. He was later appointed as country sales director and general manager of Lectra’s Turkish subsidiary. Burak Susoy served as the country manager for Dassault Systèmes in Turkey from 2012 to September 2015.
www.lectra.com
To compensate for the losses in textile business to Russia affected by the Moscow sanctions, exporters are now looking at new markets in Africa. Speaking to the media in Istanbul, Hikmet Tanriverdi, Head of the Istanbul Ready-Made Garment Exporters’ Association (IHKIB), said that the Russian sanctions caused several risks for both Turkish and Russian economies as the two countries have strong economic ties in such sectors as energy, food, and tourism, alongside the textile sector.
He said that the country’s textile exports to Russia have already been witnessing a decline for two years due to the falling ruble and the Ukraine crisis. Stating that the textile industry always thinks about the worst-case scenario, Tanriverdi said, “Until the political situation between Turkey and Russia clears up, we have decided to set new strategies to direct the textile exports [originally destined for] Russia to the African market.”
Turkey has trade relations with Nigeria, and has initiated bilateral talks with Cameroon. The association is also exploring six more countries and a market of 35 million people via Cameroon hoping to double the ready-to-wear exports to Africa in three years.
On the other hand, the foreign trade volume between the Turkey and Russia reached $31.2 billion in 2014 – a 17.3 per cent increase from the previous year.
www.ihkib.org.tr
ITMA 2015, Reiners + Fürst (R+F) said, was one of the most successful exhibitions ever in the company’s 70 year history. More than 450 visitors visited the R+F booth to see latest innovations by the brand. A large number of professionals showed keen interest in the latest developments by Reiners + Fürst.
During the show R+F presented the next generation of Turbo chromium coated rings and a selection of enhanced ring travellers. The German manufacturer has reported a three times higher order intake during ITMA than it anticipated to achieve.
Many clients utilise R+F’s solutions in rings and travellers and seek advice about possible optimisation of the whole spinning frame. The company claims expertise in the field of ring spinning with its world-wide network of agents and warehouses and enjoys the status of being a reliable partner to the ring spinning industry across the globe.
www.reinersfurst.de
Among the innovative latest technologies displayed at ITMA in Milan, Oerlikon’s Manmade Fibres Segment witnessed a number of trade visitors placing large orders totalling more than CHF 50 million for their Oerlikon Neumag staple fibre plant engineering technologies.
The company said that orders were received from key customers from Europe and Asia (outside China), for the production of staple fibres. These plant solutions will be delivered to customers over the next two years. The signing of the orders took place after ITMA 2015 in Milan.
The company also said that the new orders confirms its lead position in staple fibre production technologies, and value that its customers find in its innovative solutions. Oerlikon Neumag offers an extensive portfolio of technologies for the production of synthetic staple fibres. It delivers both one-step and two-step technology solutions, which enable customers to produce a flexible range between five and 300 tons of polypropylene, polyester, recycled polyester, polyamide, and other similar materials per day.
The Oerlikon Manmade Fibres Segment’s technologies are also offers customisation as per the customers’ requirements.
www.oerlikon.com
Firms from Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, which have traditionally relied on low-cost production in China are seeing Chinese textile firms shifting out of China and making their way to Bangladesh as a result Bangladeshi textile value chain is rising faster than any other Asian countries according to Asian Development Bank.
With rising production costs in other economies in general, setting up operations such as in Bangladesh and Vietnam has been on the rise, the report states. Apart from rising domestic value added shares, the foreign value added to Bangladesh and Vietnam exports is also increasing in a much faster pace than that experienced by the rest of their peers (excluding China). Bangladesh has attracted FDI in garments and generated new trade, but has had limited success in upgrading and diversifying Special Economic Zone (SEZ) exports.
According to the ADB’s Asian Economic Integration Report 2015, the progress in sector-level value chains’ intraregional production activities within sectors appears to be changing, with shares within industrial exports showing interesting shifts between 2000 and 2011. The report examines trends in trade, finance, migration, foreign direct investment and other economic activities in the region.
Intraregional trade within the labour-intensive Asian textile industry still increasingly dominated by the China—which covers about two-thirds of intraregional exports—shows Bangladesh and Vietnam emerging as important players, said the report. In the meantime, it said domestic value added shares of three East Asian economies—Japan, Korea and Taipei, China—have declined 6-8 percentage points during this period.
However, the report found that trade in Asia has slowed faster than that of world trade in recent years. The region’s trade expansion has witnessed low gross-domestic product growth since 2012. It found that governance gaps and lack of focus undermined performance in some zones, while successful zones managed to build close ties with the domestic economy. Economies with low incomes and young population (high ratios of 20-34 years old to total population) are generally relied on migrant sources —such as India, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, it said.
www.adb.org
"Ethiopia has many positives from a stable and peaceful political environment, affordable electricity to cheap labour. Entry-level salaries for workers in Ethiopia's textile industry range from $35 to $40 a month, lower than Bangladesh's minimum wage of $68 per month and far below the average wage of $500 in the China. Ethiopia doesn't follow any minimum wage rule, hence, workers are often willing to work for whatever wage they are offered."
While on one hand, low wages, cheap power and a stable political situation are posing as lucrative reasons for foreign textile companies like H&M to move its sourcing needs to Ethiopia, experts warn that extremely low wages could trigger protests, where workers continue to struggle to make a daily living.
Positive factors lure western buyers to Ethiopia
Ethiopia has many positives from a stable and peaceful political environment, affordable electricity to cheap labour. Entry-level salaries for workers in Ethiopia's textile industry range from $35 to $40 a month, lower than Bangladesh's minimum wage of $68 per month and far below the average wage of $500 in the China. Ethiopia doesn't follow any minimum wage rule, hence, workers are often willing to work for whatever wage they are offered.
With global brands shifting their attention to Africa for their sourcing requirements, and Africa being a major cotton producer is one of the few places in the world, where garment makers can establish the entire supply chain from fibre to fabric in one location. Unlike Bangladesh, African countries also have duty-free access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). Both jurisdictions have duty-free access to the EU, so African countries still tend to be outcompeted there.
With the help of global brands and government, Africa can look into resolving the challenges and emerge a strong sourcing destination, before it faces Bangladesh-like situation.
Minimum wages still a concern
While rising foreign investments in the country have brought hopes to the Ethiopian industry since it means more jobs, extremely poor wages are forcing workers to make ends meet. For instance a shoe factory in Duken, about a half hour drive from the Debre Zeyit garment plant, run by Chinese company Huajian employs around 3,800 Ethiopian men and women. Shoes made at this plant are supplied to big brands such as Guess, Naturalizer and Toms but basic salary of an employee is just 600 birr of €26 for working eight hours and when worked for 10 hours, the pay increases by mere €6.
On the other hand, workers also lack skill-sets required to create a quality product. The Huajian company, founded in China in the 1980s by former military officer Zhang Huarong also follows a military drill to motivate its staff. However, employees already tired of doing daily chores like fetching water from long distance do not really enjoy more physical exercise at work.
Also around 75 per cent of all Ethiopian companies still refuse to permit trade unions, which companies fear would lead to protests and bargaining for higher minimum wages and other benefits. However German clients like Tchibo have been putting pressure on the company working for them in Ethiopia to increase the minimum wages, which led to the factory offering 25 per cent rise. Now industry players expect more companies like H&M to put pressure on Ethiopian factories to raise salaries.
www.hm.com
The government is looking to inject new life into the jute industry by diversifying into new avenues to promote the use of jute bags. These include a range of products like waste paper baskets, folders and laptop bags to molded items. Children’s school bags can be made of jute. An important characteristic of jute is that it absorbs and retains moisture. This makes it very effective to be used for the construction of roads.
India accounts for an estimated 70 per cent of the world’s total production of jute products. Over 90 mills are currently operational, 67 in West Bengal alone. The rest are in Bihar, Assam, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. The industry supports about 40 lakh farmers and 3.7 lakh jute laborers.
Unrest is growing among jute producing farmers and mill workers. However, the industry’s overdependence on government orders is considered to be a major factor behind the current state of affairs. The government buys jute sacks worth Rs 5,000 crores a year for the packaging of food grains and sugar.
Large scale imports from Bangladesh, which offers a 10 per cent subsidy on domestic jute products and huge funding to its mills and exporters, have added to the stress.
