The 4th edition of the Morocco International Fashion, Textile and Accessories Fair will open doors on March 28, 2018 at the Casablanca International Fairground, Morocco. The Morocco Style is becoming trendy following collaboration with Pyramids International and AMITH, Morocco's only textile Federation. Thousands of buyers from each region of Morocco and over 400 exhibitors will be part of Morocco Style to display their products for the African market.

Morocco, which has an FTAs with the EU and the US, provides many advantages to textile exporters. The country’s economy is growing every year following International trade and textile products are among the largest import items. Morocco Style is the best platform to enter into this market and participants will be able to take an advantage of all these opportunities with the buyer delegations and professional visitors from over 18 countries; mainly from neighbouring countries such as, Tunisia, Algeria, Portugal and Spain.

Casablanca, being the biggest city and port of Morocco, holds 80 per cent of Moroccan Trade in terms of volume. Morocco’s — whose fabric import is exempt from tax — imports high volume of fabrics which accelerates the export of ready-to-wear. This platform allowed national and international companies of different industry sectors to show and promote their skills, meet partners and find international brands from several countries. Thus ‘Morocco Style’ contributed to the consolidation of the Moroccan expertise in this area, consolidating the competitiveness of the Kingdom and making it an international reference hub.

At the 3rd edition over 312 exhibitors from 11 countries such as, Morocco, Turkey, Spain, France, Portugal, France, China, India, Italy, Pakistan, Tunisia along with 12,443 professional visitors from Morocco and 37 foreign countries from West and South Africa, North Africa, Middle East and Gulf countries, European countries such as Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Greece, Netherlands, England and America contributed the success of the expo.

The date released by Iran’s customs administration reveal, Iran exported over 3,000 tons of apparel worth $39 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (started March 20, 2017. Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Oman, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Armenia, Georgia, Yemen, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, United Kingdom, Lebanon, India, Norway, Japan, Spain and Australia were among the destinations of the country’s apparel exports.

Officials put the value of Iran’s apparel market at $11 billion. The Islamic Republic exported 3,800 tons of apparel worth $46.2 million in the last fiscal year (ended March 2017), up 2.6 per cent in volume and 3.9 per cent in value when compared to the previous year. Almost 1,500 industrial units with 30,000 employees are active in clothing sector, with 340,000 tons of producing capacity. The output currently reaches 300,000 tons of clothing items per year.

According to Iranian officials, only 10 per cent of Iran’s clothing import is legal, while 90 per cent of it is smuggled. Some experts believe that the abundance of foreign brands, which flaunt cheaper price tags, has eroded the competitiveness of domestic producers, as renowned foreign brands employ strong advertisement campaigns worldwide.

Unreliable Bt cotton seeds, perennially low cotton prices, a political regime that does not seem to care and of late the pink bollworm pest. A cotton farmer dejectedly says “Before the pink bollworm fiasco, we used to produce 800 kg per bigha (2.5 bigha is equal to 1 acre), now we produce only 500-600 kg. Now I am experimenting with chickpeas.” Other farmers are experimenting with onion. A team of cotton researchers admit that the pink bollworm is now resistant to genetically engineered Bt cotton. It is partly because farmers do not follow the advisories, they add. “We prescribe a number of measures to tackle the pink bollworm. But farmers in Saurashtra have become too casual,” says Dr Dhaduk of the Cotton Research Station housed inside the state-run Junagadh Agriculture University. “We prescribe measures to tackle pink bollworm. But farmers in Saurashtra have become casual. Research by government and private companies is on to discover BT with new genes. Maybe, that will tackle this pest,” the good doctor added.

Most farmers in Saurashtra, like in other cotton growing states, fear the pink pest may eventually slash cotton production in India. With 351 lakh bales per year (1 bale is equal to 170 kg). 2016-17 data of the Rajkot-headquartered Saurashtra Ginners Association reports that India is at the world’s leading cotton producing nations; Gujarat, with 95-100 lakh bales, is the leading state in India. Saurashtra accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Gujarat’s total production, besides housing 625 ginning mills handling 65 lakh bales of cotton.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) met last month to find a solution to the pink menace. The issue resurfaced when Germany’s Bayer recently bought Monsanto. Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare admitted, during the past 2-3 years, resistance of BT cotton to fight pink bollworm has broken down. And farmers have been advised to follow certain steps. Reports say spurious seeds and pesticides are affecting farmers as well as the price of cotton has remained very low for the last two years. Not many farmers can afford to stock cotton and wait for a higher price. Brokers, traders and those who have the capacity to do so are making money in Saurashtra. The cotton bonanza in this district in the last 15 years has seen many exporters began growing to millionaires — that was till the little wiggly pink bollworms ‘Frankenstein’ emerged from their eggs and munched through the lovely cotton lint and chewed on the seeds.

On the back of demand from Western brands operating in the neighboring country and closure of some small- and medium-scale factories garment exports to India soared 66.41 per cent in the first six months of the fiscal year between July and December last year. Garment shipments to India fetched $111.33 million, reveals data from the Export Promotion Bureau, Bangladesh.

The reason for the spike, is global retail giants like H&M and Walmart have started sourcing apparel from Bangladesh for Indian consumers. The shuting of a horde of small and medium factories all over India for their failure to maintain strict compliance requirements and pay higher wages over the last two years also played a part in the surge in shipments from Bangladesh.

Abdul Matlub Ahmad, President of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry says the cost of importing garment items to India from other countries is high, due to which Western retailers have started sourcing apparel from Bangladesh in big volumes. Siddiqur Rahman, President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association says apart from Western retailers, some Indian retail giants have also been sourcing garment in big volumes from Bangladesh.

Although the majority of Bangladeshi goods enjoy duty-free benefit in the Indian market, garment exports to India did not rise much over the last few years due to the imposition of 12.5 per cent countervailing duty on items from Bangladesh. Bangladeshi exporters also face provincial taxes and non-tariff barriers in India, which has an apparel market worth nearly $40 billion. Nevertheless, garment exports to India have shown signs of pickup compared to 2017.