Soccer wear and shoes from three international sports brands, all of whom are major producers of apparel for the upcoming World Cup in Brazil, were found to contain toxic chemicals, according to a report issued by Greenpeace on Monday. In its report, the environmental organization said it bought sporting goods from Nike, Adidas and Puma in 16 countries and regions across the world and conducted tests on them from March to May. It found that 81 percent of the three brands' soccer shoes and 35

Vietnam’s foreign factory burnings gripped the news headlines last week as a wave of anti Chinese sentiment was sparked by a Chinese drilling rig’s encroachment in the South China Seas, but it can’t be hard to enrage impoverished factory workers struggling to feed themselves on wages that don’t meet their basic needs. Similarly, labor activists in Cambodia have been keen to point out the new minimum wage of $100 per month falls short of the bottom end of the living wage of $160 they have been

The first U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cotton forecast for 2014/15 projects that global cotton production will decline for the third consecutive season. Although projected at its lowest in 5 years, production remains above expectations for consumption. World production is projected to decline slightly from 2013/14 (to 115.5 million bales) as area is expected to shift from China and Australia to lower-yielding countries. Based on USDA’s initial projections, China, India, the Unit

Knitwear export grew by over 10 percent to $1.667 billion in July-March 2013-14, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said. Export of knitwear increased by $154 million in July-March 2013-14 as compared to $1.513 billion in the same period last fiscal year, the PBS said. The volume of knitwear export went up by 10,862,000 (15 percent) to 84,248,000 dozens in July-March 2013-14 as compared to 73,386,000 dozens in the same period last fiscal year, the official figures said. On an annual basis,

When global economic turmoil was on its peak shivering all industries, India’s Rs 120,000 crore synthetic industry sustained over five percent growth continuously driven largely by value added segments. Since then, the industry has trebled growth percentage to rapidly narrowing the gap between use of and synthetics in textile industry which shows that synthetic textile is the future of India, says S K Khandelia, Chief Executive Officer and President of Sutlej Textiles and Industries Ltd, promo

Speakers at a seminar yesterday stressed the need for developing the country’s leather industry as per international standard and environment-friendly in order to grip the huge global export market. They came up with the observation at a seminar on “Environment-friendly Leather Industries in Bangladesh: A Roadmap to Competitiveness and Sustainability,” jointly arranged by Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and RMM Leather Industries Limited, at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the city on Sunday. There is

The government would provide policy support to garment accessories and packaging manufacturers to help the sub-sector grow parallel to the apparel industry, one of the mainstays of the country’s economy. State minister for finance MA Mannan gave the assurance while inaugurating a project titled Bangladesh INSPIRED (Integrated Support to Poverty and Inequality Reduction through Enterprise Development), funded by the Bangladesh government and the European Union, which aims to develop SMEs in th

Garment makers plan to use locally-assembled steel structure for relocating their faulty factories to purpose-made buildings, which may propel growth in the steel building industry. “We will set up the factories with support from local steel building makers,” said Shahidullah Azim, vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Factory owners will import necessary raw materials, and steel building makers will set up the factories, if the government waives dut

Engineers of 26 US retailers and brands under the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety have so far closed down one factory in Chittagong, a year after the Rana Plaza collapse killed 1,138 people. The platform has suggested the review panel close down five more garment factories. The Alliance that started with seven teams on March 12 inspected 508 out of the 626 factories in Dhaka and Chittagong. “We are at the final stages of our inspection,” said Rabin Mesbah, managing director of the

The United States imported textiles and apparel worth US$ 24.84 billion in the first three months of 2014, registering an increase of 3.2 percent over imports of $24.069 billion made in the corresponding quarter of last year, according to the latest Major Shippers Report, released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The US imported $8.799 billion worth of textiles and garments from China, which accounted for 39.54 percent share of all textile and garment imports made by the US in January-Marc