The following is a round-up of apparel and footwear news from the world’s local media.
- Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan’s federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform says Chinese textile industries are keen to establish joint ventures with Pakistani companies. He says China’s labour intensive industries were becoming uncompetitive due to high production cost, which is why they were shifting manufacturing to other locations and focusing on research. THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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Hit hard by the rising prices in yarn (per kg), India’s readymade garment/knitwear units have requested spinning mills not to resort to any further hike in yarn prices and to look at reducing the rates due to a sharp fall in cotton prices over the last four days. According to industry sources, the cotton prices (per candy) have increased from INR33,000 (US$494) in April to INR49,000 in July, which forced the spinning mills to increase the yarn price by INR30 per kg from INRR224 to INR254. Following intervention by the Union textiles ministry, Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) started releasing cotton in the open market to MSMEs directly and the prices were down by INR2,000 per candy during the last week. THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS
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A truck transporting Cambodian garment workers to their factory crashed last week injuring 33 people; 12 of them critically, the government said. The Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training said the accident happened in the western province of Kampong Speu when the driver tried to avoid another vehicle that had driven across the road. DAILY MAIL
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Thousands of cotton farmers across the north of India have switched to “desi”, or indigenous, cotton shrubs that promise good yields and pest resistance at a fraction of the cost, spelling trouble for seed giant Monsanto in its most important cotton market outside the Americas. The Indian government is actively promoting new homegrown seeds, having already capped prices and royalties that the world’s largest seed company is able to charge. Official estimates peg the area planted with the new variety at 72,280 hectares in northern India, up from roughly 3,000 hectares last year. But the new seed is still a setback for Monsanto, which has also been hit by a roughly 10% decline in cotton acreage in India this year as farmers switch to crops like pulses and lentils in the aftermath of the whitefly blight. REUTERS (INDIA)
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Soma Textiles and Industries is to close its garment unit at Ahmedabad on 10 August. The company says it has incurred continuing losses due to high operative cost and tough competition from small garment units. BUSINESS STANDARD
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India’s Minister of Textiles, Smriti Irani, has announced the launch of a national helpline for the country’s weavers. The helpline, to be head-quartered at the union ministry of textiles, will enable weavers to lodge complaints with the Minister directly, and give suggestions for development of the handloom sector. The initiatives are meant to further Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s general election promise to help the sector, which includes a large community of Muslim weavers. HINDUSTAN TIMES
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By GlobalData - India is seeing a revival of handloom attire thanks in part to a tweet by Indian Textiles Minister Smriti Irani. The tweet, which was favourited more than 10,000 times and retweeted 4,000 times, saw hundreds respond to Irani’s request to post pictures of themselves in handloom apparel, including politicians, actors, athletes, models and designers, ahead of National Handloom Day on Sunday 7 August to celebrate the humble hand-woven fabric. It is now seeing a revival, with demand growing for sustainable and ethical fashion, even as mass-market clothing still dominates malls and pavement stalls. REUTERS
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