Archive for April, 2008
Global garment retailer C&A to buy organic cotton from India
Economic Times, India
Leading global garment retailer C&A has decided to source organic cotton from India to make garments, a move that will give a big boost to Indian farmers.
“The C&A will source 7,500 tons of organic cotton from India this year for manufacturing clothes,” Anuradha Bhavnani, India head of Shell Foundation, which is instrumental in sourcing global customers for Indian organic cotton, told reporters.
Shell Foundation, a UK-based organisation funded by petroleum major Shell, has been working among Indian cotton farmers through NGOs.
C&A has 1,172 stores across 16 EU countries. The clothing made from Indian cotton would be available in all its outlets, she said.
“For many years, C&A Europe has been purchasing products from India. In the coming years, we even plan to strengthen our existing commitment to organically produced cotton produced in India,” C&A Executive Board member Andreas G Seitz said in a statement.
By 2012, C&A hopes to switch more than 20 per cent of its product range into organic cotton, Seitz said.
Bhavnani noted that C&A would be able to manufacture about 12.5 million items of clothing including jeans and T-shirts from Indian organic cotton.
Besides global players, Shell Foundation is also talking to a big retail chain from India for supply of organic cotton.
An assured market for organic agriculture product will encourage Indian farmers to grow more such items. Besides, organic cotton is likely to fetch them more rewards compared to normal variety.
April 28th, 2008
Gokak prepares to sweep domestic garment sector
April 23, 2008 (India)
Fibre2fashion.com, India
Gokak Textiles Limited (GTL), a leading enterprise engaged in exporting textile goods has plans to venture for launching its own readymade garments under its brand, ‘Fac it’. The company has plans of starting with innerwear for men and children and will introduce its collection by September this year.
An investment of Rs160 crore has been disbursed for use in its factories at Gokak, and Marihal in Belgaum district of Karnataka. The sum was mainly assigned in parts over a period of three years to install additional capacity for meeting the requirements of its new product line.
In an exclusive interview with Fibre2fashion, Mr H S Bhaskar, Managing Director and CEO of GTL stated, “For years we have been supplying fabric to European and American brands. Now, with the increase in our manufacturing capacity, we have plans to launch our own branded garments for the Indian markets. We will initially start by launching undergarments for men, which will be followed by launch of innerwear for women and also readymade trousers and shirts for men.â€
When asked about the anticipated response and its current undertakings, Mr Bhaskar confided saying, “During the first year, the company is aiming at a sales of Rs10 crore and Rs100 crore by 2010 and an expected growth of 10-12 percent in 2008-09. Presently, GTL manufactures knitted garments and has set up a fully integrated garment factory at Belgaum and supplies garments to most of the major brands in India like Peter England, John Players, Globus, Pantaloons and international brands like Charles Vougle, Berton, Marks and Spencer, Andrew Sports, Debanhams among others. Besides, Gokak Textiles also launched sweaters under the Campbell brand for both domestic and export markets. It is setting up a new unit at Ludhiana at an investment of Rs 18 crore. It also aims to launch polo shirts and trousers by April 2009.â€
One of the most recent business propositions of the company involves talks with Indian armed forces for providing special infra-red camouflage fabric for covering aircraft as well as uniform fabric for the defence personnel. France, Belgium and Spain are few of the immediate beneficiaries of these supplies made by Gokak.
Mr Bhaskar also gave a nod to the information that as a part of its corporate social responsibility, Gokak Textiles would recruit personnel with impaired hearing and speech, providing them with work in its Campbell Knitwear Division.
Plans are still underway to cater training to these physically challenged people for a period of one year. Infact, Gokak gave training to a few personnel last year who are presently working successfully for the company.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
April 25th, 2008
China’s garment export surges 48.3% in Mar
China Knowledge Online, Singapore
Apr. 24, 2008 (China Knowledge) - The National Development and Reform Commission (NRDC) yesterday said that China’s garment export surged 48.3% to US$ 11.8 billion in March, sources reported.
According to the data published by NRDC, China’s yarn output in March hit 1.76 million tons, and cotton import was 213 thousand tons, up 12.4% and down 17.7% respectively from the same month last year.
China’s textile garment export in the first quarter went up by 19.4% to reach US$ 37.4 billion. Total export value of textile garment from last September to this March amounted to US$ 99.6 billion, up 18.7% from the last same period.
In March, the domestic cotton purchase and sales kept balance, ensuring a stable domestic cotton market, while the cotton price in the international market was continuously soaring, NRDC said.
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April 24th, 2008
Bangladesh price rises fuel workers’ confrontation with the state
Socialistworker.co.uk, UK
by Mushtuq Husain, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Bangladesh stands on the brink of a major social explosion. Huge rises in the price of basic food stuffs means that hunger is stalking the poor – leading to the violent repression of strikes on the one hand, and suicides among those who have lost all hope on the other.
The price of all foods has rocketed by between 50 and 100 percent over the last 12 months. But rice, our main staple, has increased by as much as 150 percent, while cooking oil and wheat have gone up by around 200 percent.
The government claims that it is doing its best. It is subsidising the price of rice and other food items in a system known as Open Market Sale (OMS). Still the prices at OMS are between 50 and 75 percent more than those of last year.
People have to stand in lengthy queues and many go without rice as the daily stock runs out quickly. Police often resort to baton charges of the crowds at OMS to quell protests against shortages.
The country’s garment workers are among the worst hit. They earn some of the lowest wages in the world, with basic pay around 1,629 taka (£12) a month. These workers often run out of money by the middle of the month.
Price rises mean that they and their families are starving. They must wonder how they will manage to keep working without adequate nutrition.
It is obvious to all that the minimum wage will not even cover the food bill for a single person, let alone a family.
The workers’ rightful demands for a living wage and timely payment of wages, along with overtime, are yet to be implemented at all the garment factories – despite many of the owners having agreed to them long ago.
This is leading to a new round of militant strikes and protests.
At the beginning of April 4,000 workers in Chowmohoni – the main business centre of Noakhali, a south eastern coastal district – stopped work to press their demand for a pay rise to take account of the price hike.
As a result of the stoppage, hundreds of delivery trucks arriving from different parts of Bangladesh were stranded.
A few days later 20,000 workers in the Fatulla industrial area of the Narayanganj district (south east of the capital Dhaka) violently demanded pay rises to cope with the soaring food prices.
Several thousand garment workers blocked the roads and at least 50 people, including 27 policemen, were injured. Police indiscriminately clubbed protesters.
At one stage the angry workers managed to turn the tables on their attackers. Though some officers managed to run to safety, others were beaten up, while a few others were seen taking off their uniforms and fleeing to nearby houses and shops.
Workers from two garment factories in Gazipur (a district just north of Dhaka) demonstrated last Sunday for better pay and blocked the Dhaka-Tangail and the Dhaka-Mymensingh highways.
As I write, workers at the large Alpha Tobacco Manufacturing Company in Jessore, in the south west region, are agitating for the payment of wages owed. They have given a seven-day ultimatum to the authorities.
In such a precarious situation, the government has poured fat on the fire by announcing that it is to lease out six state-owned jute mills in Khulna (a district in the south west region) to private owners.
This means hundreds more workers will be thrown out of their jobs, and that their families will face starvation.
Decline
While many thousands of organised workers are taking to the streets and responding to the crisis with strike action and protests, others are being driven to despair.
Every day newspapers report the cases of those, like Azizul Huq from Mirsarai Upazila in the south east of the country, who after days of being unable to find work could no longer bear the pangs of hunger.
Unable to support his family, he tried to kill his three small children by burying them alive at night. Luckily their screams drew people to the scene in time for them to be saved.
Hundreds of other families find themselves in the same desperate situation.
As the crisis deepens the response of the government and officials is to refuse to distribute essential commodities through a rationing system at a subsidised rate and instead advise people to eat less food!
The situation in Bangladesh is volatile. Hunger is fuelling massive discontent among the working class and poor peasants and this is resulting in sporadic and sometimes violent outbursts.
The government’s repressive emergency rule and draconian laws may quell the mass protests in the short term, but they will soon fail.
The political stalemate brought on by the state of emergency, combined with the obvious army interference in the governance process, is feeding the sense of crisis.
All the ingredients for a social explosion are present. The crisis may well burst into a mass upheaval in the coming days.
The following should be read alongside this article:
» Busting myths about the food crisis
April 23rd, 2008
Clark-Subic garments hub?
Inquirer.net, Philippines
By Conrado Banal III
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:40:00 04/22/2008
Trade And Industry Secretary Peter Favila must be a regular reader of the The Asian Wall Street Journal.
A couple of months ago, the newspaper came out with an item about the escalating costs of manufacturing industries in southern China, the most industrialized part of this country, particularly the Guangzhou area which belongs to the so-called Pearl River delta.
The article noted that more and more factories in the region were moving out of China. They included garment-making plants which, in the early 1990s, triggered the industrial boom in places like Shenzen special economic zone.
Favila must have been ecstatic to read it. China is the most ferocious of our competitors in the export markets, particularly in garments. The hardship of garment factories in southern China could be an opportunity for the Philippine garment industry to make a dramatic comeback.
And so, over at the Department of Trade and Industry nowadays, they are talking about the Favila blueprint for revival of the garments industry. They are toying with the idea of a “Garment City,” a hub of garment manufacture.
From what I hear, Favila is looking intently at the Clark special economic zone.
Now connected by a toll road to the Subic Freeport, Clark offers a unique setup for light manufacturing industries. It has its own international airport, and it connects to the Subic seaport through a 30-minute drive superhighway.
There is nothing like such an advantage for manufacturing in the whole country.
The Favila blueprint unabashedly borrows from a similar plan for China’s first special economic zone at Shenzen some 20 years ago.
In 1989, I went to Shenzen to interview the managing director. There was nothing there except the administration office. It was all just open land.
Less than 20 years later today, the area is bustling. It has more skyscrapers than the Makati business district. And it is a city built by the garments sector.
A couple of months ago, Favila had a secret meeting with the new board of the Confederation of Garments Exporters of the Philippines, or Congep. It so happened that five of the seven board members of the confederation were based in Hong Kong. They have humongous factories in the Guangzhou area.
Were they probably interested in moving to the Philippines?
At its height in the early 1990s, the Philippine garment industry employed over a million workers directly. Its workforce is now estimated to be down drastically to some 200,000 people.
Favila had a two-hour brainstorming with the Congep board at Grand Hyatt Hotel in Hong Kong on how to revive the garment industry.
It so happened that the Grandma at the Palace was just around the area. She apparently has a special interest in the sector. The Lola used to be head of the Garments Export and Textile Board during the time of Tita Cory, also known as former president Corazon Aquino.
* * *
The seven Congep board account for about 25 percent of Philippine garments exports to the United States, the world’s biggest buyer of clothing. That was about $400 million last year.
Word from the Department of Trade and Industry is that the seven giants committed to the Grandma and to Favila that they would retain their investments in the Philippines.
And so how does this cute administration turn the bad news from China to good news for us?
In their two-hour meeting in Hong Kong, the group presented to Favila a wish list of sorts. They included measures to reduce the electricity rates.
Regarding the idea to make Clark and Subic into a garment-manufacturing hub, the group said they would need lower water and power costs. They thus suggested that the biggest three locators in the special zone be made to sit in the board of Clark Development Corp., which manages the zone.
But here’s a little kink: The ongoing fight between the Board of Investments (BoI) and the Department of Finance over tax incentives.
The finance department has been moving to reduce the incentives granted by the BoI to expansions of existing factories. Unfortunately, Favila will need such incentives to attract the relocating factories from China.
But the main item on the Favila blueprint remains the “free trade” agreements with Japan and the United States, which can open up those rich markets to the local garment industry. For instance, the United States charges 15 percent tariff on Philippine-made garments. A free trade agreement with the US government will eliminate such import duties.
That, in effect, means our garment companies can cut their prices by 15 percent to stay competitive. In the dog-eat-dog world of business, even a fraction of a percentage point leeway in pricing can mean deal or no deal.
* * *
Merchants at TriNoMa Mall (at the West triangle in Quezon City) are worried over the mall’s image to the public. Its top level was touted as the “Greenbelt” of the northern part of the metropolis.
The establishments there are shocked at seeing a different kind of market. The restaurant chain Italianni’s, for instance, which normally does extremely well in other malls, is reportedly giving out P500 coupons for every P1,500 spent at TriNoMa.
Nobody really expected a project of the Ayala group to become coupon land.
From what I hear, the bigger problem to the establishment is the power fluctuations at TriNoMa. The lights go out frequently, the elevators and the escalators stop without warning, computer systems fail.
Above all, there is no air-conditioning. And what is a mall without air-conditioning, right?
The problem is supposedly caused by the structural incompatibility between Ayala’s power specifications and the Manila Electric substation in the Balintawak area of Quezon City.
Nobody can say whether or not Ayala Land president Jim Ayala has been apprised of the problem. I just know he will not allow it to destroy the Ayala name in real estate.
Previous columns:
Shadowy group after Pagcor - 04/08/2008
Grieve and take - 04/01/2008
Con of worms - 03/26/2008
Is there really a food crisis? - 03/25/2008
For whom the PSE bell toils - 02/12/2008
April 23rd, 2008
Garment industry hangs in the balance
Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka
Investors opt to move out to new locations & productions
By Ravindu Peiris
With the GSP+ hanging in the balance the industry is now looking for new locations and productions with some investors likely to move out should concessions for Sri Lanka be rejected.
The Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+) is vital for the survival of the garment industry in Sri Lanka as alternatives for garment manufacturing and exporting companies if the European Union (EU) trade concessions are rejected do not look healthy for the garment industry of the country.
Commenting on this Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) Marketing Committee Chairman Kumar Mirchandani said that companies are already looking at their options and “they will look for new productions and new locations.†He also stated that the investors will move out if the EU decides to reject the trade concessions to Sri Lanka.
Mirchandani said that several years ago the United States was the destination for a bulk of the Sri Lankan exports but over the last few years trade has shifted to EU. “There has been a dramatic decline in Sri Lankan exports to the US, therefore at present the growth of the garment industry hangs on the balance as the industry has grown onto a monumental scale mainly due to the contribution from EU,†he pointed out.
According to him the consequences to the garment industry if the concessions are rejected would be ‘diabolical’.
He noted that nations such as Vietnam and Cambodia are striving to capture the international market and “grab everyone’s businessâ€. He further divulged that the minimum wage of a garment worker is US $ 125 in Sri Lanka compared to low wages such as US $ 40 in Bangladesh while they provide the same amount of labour. “As you can see we are facing massive competition, and even with the high cost of power as well as high inflation we sustain these wages†he said.
However Mirchandani revealed that he is optimistic of receiving the concessions and that the country should adjust and do whatever is needed to secure GSP+ for the next three years.
April 23rd, 2008
Rice farmers go organic and earn extra money
Jakarta Post, Indonesia
Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
The increasing popularity of organic produce in the capital has led farmers in uphill Bogor to dedicate some of their land to growing organic fruit and vegetables.
Farmers in Ciasihan village in the Pamijahan district, for example, previously relied on rice harvests.
“Pamijahan is traditionally one of Bogor’s rice producing areas, but farmers here were very poor,” Pamijahan district head Bambang W. Tawakal said during a public seminar Wednesday promoting local organic farms.
On June 5, 2007, the local government launched an education program working with PT Chevron Geothermal Salak, and Spora (a non-government organization aiming to improve farmers’ welfare), to teach farmers organic farming techniques.
Farmers were given management training, seeds and guidelines on how to grow organic vegetables and crops other than rice (to be planted as second crops during the dry season).
“They were also given marketing lessons to help them find buyers for the produce,” Bambang said.
Spora executive Ahmad Jamili said his organization had introduced the idea of developing organic farming in 2006 when they were training farmers how to make compost.
“We formed nine farmer groups … They started by developing their land and made compost for organic fertilizer in June last year,” he said.
Marta, head of the “Kecapi” group, said they had started to see big profits from growing organic produce.
Previously, he said, each farmer would earn only around Rp 125,000 (some US$13) a month (Rp 500,000 per quadrant planting season) from a 1.6-hectare rice paddy.
There are more than 8,088 hectares of rice field in Pamijahan district at the foot of Mt. Salak, around a two-hour drive from Jakarta.
Each hectare of rice paddy produces at least 8 tons of rice, Marta said.
These farmers now have an additional income of Rp 200,000 per month from a 400 square-meter organic lot, one quarter the size of a rice field.
They produce up to 30 kilograms of vegetables and tomatoes every week and sell them for Rp 6,000 a kilogram.
“Our only problem is there is no easy access to affordable vegetable seeds of good quality. We usually get them in Cibinong (the center of Bogor regency), some 30 kilometers from here, and there is no public transportation to take us there — so we have to spend a lot on transport.”
April 18th, 2008
Nepalese Garment Exports To U.S. Fall Drastically
AHN
Siddique Islam - AHN South Asia Correspondent
Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) - The exports of the Nepali readymade garment (RMG) to the United States witnessed a huge fall of 66 per cent in terms of value in March, 2008.
The apparel products valued over US$998,820.70 were exported to the US in March as against over $2.89 million in the corresponding period of the previous year, according to the Garment Association of Nepal statistics.
It is the second straight month this year that the exports of the Nepali textile and apparel products have lost its beat, The Himalayan Times, a local newspaper, reported.
The RMG exports to the U.S. has been suffering for the last couple of years but had slightly recovered in January with exports up by only two per cent.
The need of enhancing competitive strength in terms of price and quality of the Nepali products to compete with big suppliers from India and China and other players like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Cambodia, the newspaper reported quoting an industry insider.
April 17th, 2008
Bangladesh garment workers strike over soaring food prices
AFP
36 minutes ago
DHAKA (AFP) — At least 15,000 Bangladesh garment factory workers went on strike Tuesday to call for higher wages as food prices in the impoverished nation soar, police said.
Bandladesh’s garment industry, crucial for the economy as the leading export earner, saw dozens of factories idle at the Fatullah industrial area, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Dhaka, local police chief Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan said.
“Since morning, over 15,000 workers are sitting in their factories doing nothing. They said they would not start work until the owners raise their salaries. They said their present wages don’t cover food expenses,” he said.
Last week, a similar strike led owners of at least four factories in the same area to raise worker salaries by 200-250 taka (three to four dollars) a month after riots over high food prices left at least 50 people injured and several factories vandalised.
Prices for the staple rice have doubled in Bangladesh in the past year as floods last summer and a major cyclone that hit the country in November led to severe damage of crops.
The basic minimum monthly salary of a garment worker is only 25 dollars while a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice costs 35 taka (50 cents) - normally enough to feed a family of four for a day.
The majority of Bangladesh households spend nearly 70 percent of their income on food and the government has moved to import more rice and sell it at subsidised prices on the open market to tame inflation.
But soaring global prices and moves by many rice exporting countries to limit supplies has created shortages.
At least five people have died in similar protests over high food and fuel prices in Haiti, while disturbances have rocked Egypt, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries in the past month.
April 16th, 2008
Bangladesh garment workers strike over soaring food prices
AFP
DHAKA (AFP) — At least 15,000 Bangladesh garment factory workers went on strike Tuesday to call for higher wages as food prices in the impoverished nation soar, police said.
Bandladesh’s garment industry, crucial for the economy as the leading export earner, saw dozens of factories idle at the Fatullah industrial area, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Dhaka, local police chief Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan said.
“Since morning, over 15,000 workers are sitting in their factories doing nothing. They said they would not start work until the owners raise their salaries. They said their present wages don’t cover food expenses,” he said.
Last week, a similar strike led owners of at least four factories in the same area to raise worker salaries by 200-250 taka (three to four dollars) a month after riots over high food prices left at least 50 people injured and several factories vandalised.
Prices for the staple rice have doubled in Bangladesh in the past year as floods last summer and a major cyclone that hit the country in November led to severe damage of crops.
The basic minimum monthly salary of a garment worker is only 25 dollars while a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice costs 35 taka (50 cents) - normally enough to feed a family of four for a day.
The majority of Bangladesh households spend nearly 70 percent of their income on food and the government has moved to import more rice and sell it at subsidised prices on the open market to tame inflation.
But soaring global prices and moves by many rice exporting countries to limit supplies has created shortages.
At least five people have died in similar protests over high food and fuel prices in Haiti, while disturbances have rocked Egypt, Cameroon, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries in the past month.
April 15th, 2008
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