Apparel industry briefing

Multi-stakeholder organisation Organic Cotton Accelerator says that with as many as 80,000 farmer participants in the cotton season of 2021/22, it is pleased with the number of farmers joining its organic cotton farming programme.

Textile and clothing exports in Pakistan grew 23% in 2020-21 year-on-year by earning US$15.4bn, up from $12.5bn in 2019-21, according to Rahim Nasir, chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA).

The 2021 USFIA Fashion Industry Benchmarking Study revealed US fashion companies had to add nearly US$1bn extra import duties to their yearly sourcing costs and nearly 90% of respondents said the tariff war directly increased their company’s sourcing cost.

A World Bank report suggests the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific nations, has the potential to lift 27 million people to middle-class status by 2035.

Sri Lanka’s Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) suggests the country’s US$6bn apparel export target for 2022 could be revised if political instability continues.

The US secondhand market is estimated to more than double by 2026, reaching US$82bn, according to online resale platform Thredup’s tenth Resale Report.

Recycled polyester made up 38% of Nike footwear’s total polyester usage in fiscal year 2021 and this was double the amount used in its 2020 fiscal year.

France's Fairbrics SAS, which specialises in net-positive synthetic fibres, recently raised more than EUR6.5m (US$7bn) to develop carbon-neutral fibres for the fashion industry.

Japan has the world’s third largest apparel consumption market with retail sales totalling US$100bn in 2021, according to University of Delaware's associate professor of fashion and apparel studies, Dr Sheng Lu.

GlobalData estimates that across its full life cycle, the fashion industry has an annual climate footprint of closer to 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent – similar to that of the EU.

“We like this particular benchmark because it’s not a ‘shiny badge’ to be pleased with and place on the cabinet. Future-Fit sets the destination, so we are always clear and objective about confronting the gap, whilst also establishing how much more we need to do.”

“You wouldn’t hear many of the large brands baulking about transparency but there are so many, hundreds if not thousands, of small brands that haven’t started the journey at all.”