The meeting comes in the backdrop of India’s outbound shipments in the first four months of FY22 being $130.56 billion, which is 32.64% of $400 billion and up 73.8% over the corresponding period last year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Friday meet India’s missions abroad, export promotion councils and the industry to discuss ways to promote exports and achieve the ambitious target of $400 billion in merchandise shipments. The meeting comes in the backdrop of India’s outbound shipments in the first four months of FY22 being $130.56 billion, which is 32.64% of $400 billion and up 73.8% over the corresponding period last year With recovery firming up at key export destinations, including the US and Europe, the government is keen to ensure Indian exporters are able to take advantage. “The meeting is majorly to interact with heads of missions and the industry to push exports and meet the ambitious target of $400 billion,” said an official. Senior government officials will attend the meeting, likely in the evening, sources said. Led by petroleum products, gems and jewellery and engineering goods, exports rose 47.9% on-year to a record $35.17 billion in July. The industry is likely to raise issues related to liquidity and shipping during the meeting. It has also pushed for priority status to exports sector and resolution of risky exporters issues.
Source: Economic Times
The DICGC (amendment) Bill will cover 98.3% of depositors and 50.9% of deposit value in the banking system, way above the global level of 80% and 20-30%, respectively, Sitharaman had said last week The Deposit Insurance Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) Amendment Bill, which was approved by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday amid Opposition uproar, will help small depositors, including those of the crisis-ridden PMC Bank, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The Bill proposes to give customers access to their deposits up to Rs 5 lakh within just 90 days if their stressed banks are placed under moratorium. The Bill covers all banks, including co-operative banks. Similarly, the Upper House also cleared the Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill 2021, which seeks to decriminalise a dozen offences and enable such entities to enjoy the same benefits as large companies. Hundreds of start-ups, chartered accountant firms and others that are registered as LLPs are expected benefit from this move. The DICGC (amendment) Bill will cover 98.3% of depositors and 50.9% of deposit value in the banking system, way above the global level of 80% and 20-30%, respectively, Sitharaman had said last week. Also, as per the extant system, customers of a fallen bank could lay their hands on the insured deposit amount only after the bank’s liquidation, which would take even 8-10 years. So, the amendments were brought in to ensure that customers, especially the small ones, have time-bound access to the insured amount to meet financial exigency. Last year, the government had raised the limit of bank deposits insured under the DICGC Act to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh. The DICGC is a wholly-owned arm of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which offers deposit insurance. If a customer’s deposit amount crosses Rs 5 lakh in a single bank, only up to Rs 5 lakh, including the principal and interest, will be paid by the DICGC if the bank turns bankrupt. Before the hike last year, the government had kept the deposit cover unchanged at Rs 1 lakh since May 1993, when it was raised from Rs 30,000 after the security scam in 1992 had led to the liquidation of Bank of Karad in Maharashtra. As for decriminalising certain offences, once the LLP (amendment) Bill is cleared by both the houses of Parliament, only 22 penal provisions, seven compoundable offences and non-compoundable offences will remain. After the Cabinet approval to this Bill last week, Sitharaman said: “Between large companies that are well-regulated and small proprietorships, LLPs did not have benefit of either simplified regulation or ease of practice under proprietorship. With Wednesday’s Cabinet decision, we are bridging the gap and making LLPs more attractive, easy to handle.” The corporate affairs ministry has said that the objective of this move is to remove criminality of offences from business laws where no mala-fide intentions are involved.
Source: Financial Express
Government is committed for promoting Indian exports in international markets and suitable interventions are done from time to time. The key schemes/interventions taken are:
Government is continuously engaged in strengthening Indian industry through “ease of doing business” for improving the business environment and attracting foreign investments. To make domestic manufacturing globally competitive and to create global champions in manufacturing,Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes in 13 sectors are being implemented. The Government has initiated a review of some of the existing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) to maximize its export potential to benefit domestic industry as well as to make them more user friendly, simple and trade facilitative. In addition, bilateral trade negotiations have been initiated with a number ofcountries. This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Smt. Anupriya Patel, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
Source: PIB
The portal would also have information related to partner government agencies like FSSAI, drug controller, etc., to carry out imports and exports. The CBIC on Wednesday launched a portal to provide information on customs procedures and regulatory compliance. The Indian Customs Compliance Information Portal (CIP) at www.Cip.Icegate.Gov.In/CIP will provide free access to information on all Customs procedures and regulatory compliance for nearly 12,000 Customs Tariff Items, the Central Board for Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) said in a statement. The portal would also have information related to partner government agencies like FSSAI, drug controller, etc., to carry out imports and exports. For using CIP, one can simply enter either the Customs Tariff Heading (CTH) or the description of the goods in question to get information to step-by-step procedures, regulatory compliances requirements like licence, certificates, etc., for imports as well as exports This includes import and export through posts and courier, import of samples, reimport and re-export of goods, self-sealing facility for exporters and project imports. Another important feature of CIP is a pan-India map showing all the Customs seaports, airports, and land customs stations, etc. It also contains addresses of the regulatory agencies and their websites, the CBIC said.
Source: Outlook India
Air India has launched customs bonded trucking facility at Coimbatore airport to help exporters easily transport goods internationally. The initiative will facilitate transportation of large size cargo including textile machineries, spare parts and readymade garments from Coimbatore, Air India officials said. At present, cargo weighing 150kg per single piece can be shipped from Coimbatore airport, which can accommodate only narrow-body aircraft. “The new facility will help traders to move bigger consignments to other airports that have wide-body aircraft,” an official said. “Goods intended to be exported from other airports will be cleared by customs at the Coimbatore airport itself. Cargo trucks will be sealed by customs department after certifying goods, so that they need not to be certified by customs at the airport from where the consignment is airlifted. The facility will also help cargo agents in Coimbatore to handle more consignment. It is a first-of-its-kind facility, Air India Coimbatore station manager Girija Ramesh said. “The trucking system is backed by Air India’s digital processes. It will hugely benefit the logistics community in Coimbatore.” Representatives of trade bodies attended the launch event.
Source: Times of India
It has also recommended a new supervisory body to oversee resolution professionals and suggested that only high court judges be appointed to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to ensure quicker disposal of cases. A parliamentary standing committee appointed to examine the workings of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) has recommended an overhaul of the present system including a threshold rate of haircut for creditors below. It has also recommended a new supervisory body to oversee resolution professionals and suggested that only high court judges be appointed to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to ensure quicker disposal of cases. The 29 member committee headed by former minster of state for finance Jayant Sinha, and also including former prime minister Manmohan Singh said that low recovery rates with haircuts as much as 95% and 71% of the cases pending beyond the 180 days timeframe envisaged by the law point towards a deviation from the original objective of the code. "As the insolvency process has fairly matured now, there may be an imperative to have a benchmark for the quantum of "hair-cut", comparable to global standards," the committee said without specifying what this benchmark could be. The committee also expressed apprehension about fresh graduates being appointed as resolution professionals (RPs) expressing doubts over their handling of large cases. It pointed out that regulatory action has been taken in 123 out of the 203 cases examined by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI). It has suggested that instead of having multiple insolvency professional agencies (IPAs) a single body may be formed to oversee and regulate RPs. The parliamentarians have suggested a professional code of conduct for the committee of credtors (CoC) the main decision making body approving a resolution plan and also a set of guidelines for the appointment of RPs so as to ensure transperancy in the CoC. It noted that though the new code has helped in substantially improving credit culture, there are long delays in cases due to the time taken to admit cases, allowing bidders even after the deadline and various challenges to the NCLT judgements. "NCLT should accept defaulters within 30 days and transfer control to a resolution process within this time period....IBC needs to be amended so that no post hocbids are allowed during the resolution process," the committee said. IBC watchers said that the committee's recommendations are forward looking. "The law of diminishing marginal returns has set in IBC resolutions. In that background, the standing committee recommendations are timely and forward looking. Overhaul of the resolution ecosystem will lead to more effective IBC 2.0 regime." Hari Hara Mishra, director, UV ARC. The committee expressed concerns that the NCLT is currently functioning without a regular president and is short of 34 members out of the sanctioned strength of 62. It has reccommended involving national law schools so that conduct research, training and also provide support in the form of law clerks. It has suggested dedicated benches of the IBC within the NCLT and also special benches for micro and small enterprises for quicker disposal of cases. RPs should also be allowed to sell company assets depending on the demand, in parts to multiple bidders rather than in a block to get maximum value. The report was based on multiple meetings the committee had with regulators like Reserve Bank of India (RBI), IBBI, finance ministry, the ministry of corporate affairs, banks, law firms and industry associations since August 2020.
Source: Economic Times
India and EU have agreed to resume the negotiations for a balanced, ambitious, comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations, including those on specific issues, are to be held considering the interest of either side. The commodities included / excluded in the FTA negotiations are to be finalized based on extensive consultations with the stakeholders, once negotiations resume. Review of the existing FTAs is an ongoing process to maximize country’s export potential to benefit the domestic industry, and to make the FTAs more user friendly, simple and trade facilitative. This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Smt. Anupriya Patel, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
Source: PIB
RBI has asked banks to ensure that the instructions are implemented in a nondisruptive manner The Reserve Bank of India has further extended the deadline for implementing the new current account norms by another three months, following requests from banks. This extension comes one year after the guidelines were first introduced and nine months since the first deadline. RBI has asked banks to ensure that the instructions are implemented in a non-disruptive manner. “Banks will be permitted time till October 31, 2021 to implement the provisions of the circular. This extended time line shall be utilised by banks to engage with their borrowers to arrive at mutually satisfactory resolutions within the ambit of the circular. Such issues which banks are unable to resolve themselves shall be escalated to Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) for appropriate guidance. Residual issues, if any, requiring regulatory consideration shall be flagged by IBA to the Reserve Bank for examination by September 30, 2021. In a bid to enforce credit discipline and check diversion of funds, RBI had put in place certain safeguards for the opening of current accounts by banks in August last year. Broadly, these rules say banks cannot open current accounts for borrowers where their exposure is less than 10% of the borrower’s total exposure to the banking system. RBI had first asked banks to comply within three months of issuing the circular, but with banks dragging their feet on compliance, the regulator had extended the deadline to July end. The regulator’s decision to further extend the deadline till October end comes after the closure of current accounts caused huge disruption for current account holders, who are mostly businesses/traders and entrepreneurs. Mint had reported on 4 August that banks faced stiff resistance from government enterprises over the closure of these accounts. Some government enterprises threatened banks that they will blacklist the lender, if their current accounts were closed, the report said. Separately, several borrowers also took to the social media to express their angst, and seek government intervention to prevent these disruptions. Under the extant guidelines, RBI had allowed banks to open current accounts for customers who have not availed any cash credit or overdraft facility, provided its exposure to the banking system is less than ₹5 crore. The regulator had also allowed lending banks to open current account for those customers which has an exposure of ₹5 crore or more but less than ₹50 crore. Even non-lending banks can open current accounts for such borrowers though only for collection purposes, RBI said.
Source: Live Mint
Due to shortage of sea containers, exporters opt for the costlier mode to move consignments Due to a severe shortage of sea containers, exporters in the textile hub of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu are shifting to air transport to ensure that garments hit the shop shelves abroad on time for Christmas and New Year sales. The shift to air transport will cost exporters significantly more but they are willing to absorb it as they don’t want to risk losing clients by failing to deliver on time. The Covid pandemic, the Suez Canal blockage in March, suspension of operations at China’s Yantian port in June, and the recent typhoon in China affected global container trade resulting in huge congestions at certain ports in the US, Europe and China. This, in turn, caused a major shortage of containers. Normally consignments reach Europe in 26 days and the US in 35 days and buying sequences are designed accordingly. However, due to the non-availability of containers, the delay has become unavoidable and in such cases air mode is used and consignments take a maximum of one week to reach the destination. Exporters now don't have a choice but to shell out ten times the cost to transport by air, said Raja M Shanmugham, Tirupur Exporters’ Association President. The textile industry is forced to shift to air from sea because garments are mostly seasonal and need to reach the stores on time, otherwise the goods would become outdated. For example, for Christmas and New year targeted products need to reach the shelf by the end of November. CMN Muruganandan, Partner, Gomatha International, Tiruppur said that the shortage of containers is killing the industry, and companies are forced to take the heavy burden of additional cost. Even by air, there are likely to be space constraints, he added. “If we don’t supply this year looking at the additional cost, clients will source it from China, Taiwan or Vietnam. This will badly hurt the industry,” he said. Every year, between June and September, exporters from Tiruppur send garments to global markets worth nearly Rs 8,000 crore, he said.
Source: The Hindu Businessline
Minster of State for Textiles and Railways Smt. Darshana Jardosh, Minister of State for Commerce Smt. Anupriya Patel, Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi accompanied by esteemed women members of parliament visited ‘My Handloom My Pride Expo’ at Dilli Haat today. They interacted with weavers & artisans and bought the exquisite handloom products . Smt Darshana Jardosh had invited all the women Members of Parliament to visit the handloom Expo at Dilli Haat and see the rich handloom heritage in order to encourage the weavers and promote the industry. In the 75th year of independence, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has urged all of us as a nation to buy Indian Handloom products and showcase their grandeur by associating with #MyHandloomMyPride. On the clarion call of the Prime Minister, National level – “My Handloom My Pride Expo” is being organized at Dilli Haat, INA, New Delhi from 1st August to 15th August 2021 by National Handloom Development Corporation (NHDC) to celebrate the 7th National Handloom Day. Speaking on the occasion, Smt. Darshana Jardosh said that Handloom sector is a symbol of our country’s rich and varied cultural heritage and ‘My Handloom My Pride Expo’ will give a big boost to our weavers and artisans in this pandemic period. The minister stated that handloom sector directly addresses women’s empowerment with over 70% of all weavers and allied workers being female. She further mentioned that Government is taking several measures to ensure sustainable development of the handloom sector thereby empowering our handloom loom sector thereby empowering our handloom weavers and workers financially and instilling pride in their exquisite craftsmanship. Smt. Anupriya Patel said that handloom is our pride and called upon the youth of the country to make handloom their style quotient. She said that Textiles sector is the second largest generator of employment after agriculture and such expos will go a long way in supporting and empowering the weavers, strengthening the handloom industry and promoting exports. Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi said that handloom is a very rich sector and the purpose of their visit to Expo is to encourage the weavers & artisans and instil confidence in them to grow further. The Expo will provide direct access to the Handloom weavers of various areas of India, to market their genuine Handloom products to consumers. Through the EXPO, handloom agencies not only market their products at reasonable rates but also get to know customers’ choice with regard to colour, design and weaving for future improvement of the product. 125 plus Handloom agencies/ National awardees belonging to 22 states are participating. The exhibition will be open to public from 11 am to 8 pm for fifteen days upto August 15, 2021 and more than 10000 people are expected to visit the exhibition.
Source: PIB
A report issued Tuesday by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for clothing exports in the year 2020 has shown that Vietnam has surpassed Bangladesh as the second-largest global trader. According to the study, last year Vietnamese sales totaled US $ 29 billion, an increase of 6.4 percent year-on-year. The WTO also highlighted that in the last decade, the country's participation in the world clothing export market has skyrocketed and eventually surpassed that of Bangladesh, whose shipments decreased 6.8 percent in 2020. Hit hard by Covid-19, Bangladesh's output declined sharply as the pandemic forced factories to close by canceling orders or delaying payments for many Western brands. Vietnam, on the other hand, expanded production and diversified it into the segment of medium and high-priced clothing and accessories, thanks to its good management of the epidemiological situation and the modernization of the production chain. Other factors were the stability of the national currency against the US dollar, the activation of the free trade agreement with the European Union and the reduction of operations of many global companies in China, which shifted to Vietnam. The WTO also highlighted Vietnam's greater political and social stability against that of its competitors in the sector such as Bangladesh and India, and its citizens have greater access to education and health care. Vietnam's market share of 6.4 % in 2020 was second only to China’s 31.6 percent. In 2019, Vietnam only had a share of 2.9 %. According to Vietnam's General Statistics Office textile exports so far in 2021 were worth US $18.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of over 14 %. The Ministry of Industry and Trade said some major export markets such as the U.S. and Europe have higher demand for garments and footwear amid the economic recovery and the end of social distancing, making conditions favourable for Vietnam to achieve its export target of US $ 39 billion this year.
Source: Merco press
Data is currently siloed, systems tend to operate in isolation and parties have had little to no incentive to share data. The UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) is working with IBM, Tech Data, and the Future Fashion Factory to design, prototype and pilot a new technology platform based on IBM technologies to help the UK fashion and textile industry to drive sustainability and profitability through increased transparency within the supply chain. Retailers Next, H&M’s COS brand, N Brown, New Look and yarn manufacturer Laxtons will be part of the initial pilot. The Sustainable Supply Chain Optimisation project has been awarded £1.4 million in funding by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, on behalf of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) Manufacturing Made Smarter Challenge. The global fashion industry is one of the biggest global polluters and one of the greatest producers of waste, while issues around unsafe workplaces, labour abuses and low wages continue.
Transparency
One of the major obstacles preventing organisations from implementing more sustainable, responsible practices and preventing consumers from shopping more sustainably is a fundamental lack of transparency and visibility across the different stages of the supply-chain. Data is siloed, systems tend to operate in isolation and parties have had little to no incentive to share data with the rest of the ecosystem due to the significant manual effort. The new technology platform will combine a number of emerging technologies like blockchain, AI and sensors to digitise the key processes in the supply-chain, creating a shared system of data that the different parties can trust and easily act upon. It will, for example, be possible to gain a much better understanding of where and how each garment’s fabric was processed and finished, by whom and in what conditions. It will be easier to spot potential disruptions before they have a chance to affect delivery. It will also be possible to better monitor production processes and flows resulting in a real chance to reduce waste and optimise stock. These unprecedented levels of insight will allow real, measurable and auditable actions across the whole of the supply-chain, enabling increased understanding of and compliance to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) criteria as well as improved operational efficiency. In essence, the platform will be designed to help make a complex and disjointed global supply chain more sustainable, resilient and able to cope with unforeseen disruptions.
Robust data
“Working together, we are pleased to support the development of a new supply chain platform tool for the apparel and textiles sector, to facilitate the gathering of robust sustainability data and provide clear visibility of environmental and ethical impacts to empower better decisions,” said Joanne Poynor, head of sustainable development at Next. “We recognise that collaborating on this project will help remove complexity, increase transparency and help develop sustainable solutions with more reassuring visibility of the people and the environments impacted throughout the value chain,” added Sue Fairley, head of sourcing, sustainability and quality at New Look. “We anticipate that by bringing new technologies and global networks together, UKFT will accelerate change and allow the provenance of the products we sell to open up from origin to end user.” The nine-month project will deliver a solution built on a combination of IBM’s blockchain and AI technologies running on IBM Cloud. The blockchain technology will enable increased transparency in the supply chain and the AI technology will facilitate the detection and response to supply chain disruption and provide the insights for real-time analysis of current business performance, rapid problem solving and optimisation of business flows. It will be open source and easily available across the whole supply chain, with an integrated visualisation layer as the core innovation focus.
Source: Innovation in Textiles
Vietnam, Bangladesh's inveterate competitor on the global apparel market, makes the most of the windfall with better hospitality for the rearward-floating capital investors. China's gross investment in Bangladesh amounted to only US$122.54 million in the last calendar year, 2020, tenth among the top overseas investors in the country, official statistics showed. Although the Chinese investment was recorded at a higher amount of $695.65 million in the previous calendar year, 2019, Bangladesh failed to maintain the momentum in the subsequent year (2020). China's investment in Vietnam in January-November period in 2020 was recorded at $2.4 billion, Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam data showed. An expected diversion of Chinese investment to Bangladesh shied away in 2020, though local economists and businesspeople were very optimistic on it when the United States of America (USA)'s Trump administration imposed trade restrictions on Chinese products. The US-China trade war emerged when the US government in July 2018 imposed 25 per cent duty on around US$34 billion worth of imports from China, including cars, hard disks and aircraft parts. In a tit-for-tat action, Beijing slapped 25 per cent tariffs on 545 goods originating from the US, worth US$34 billion. Agricultural products, automobiles and aquatic products are among the items facing the blowback. According to Bangladesh Bank (BB), Chinese textile and apparels businessmen were the top in position with their $44.15 million worth of investment in Bangladesh, followed by power-sector businessmen who invested $41.58 million in 2020. The Chinese businessmen from leather and leather products had also come forward with $10.73 million which placed them third in position on the sectoral investment lists. Chinese businesses also invested in Bangladesh's construction, trading, food, telecommunications, agriculture & fishing, and chemicals & pharmaceuticals, too. Meanwhile, investment from the United Kingdom (UK) was almost steady even during this all-upending Covid-19 pandemic, like in the previous calendar years. The UK maintained top position on the FDI (foreign direct investment) list of Bangladesh with $461.29 million worth of funds put in here in the past year, 2020, the central bank statistics show. In the previous year, 2019, the UK invested $416.14 million worth of funds in Bangladesh. The Netherlands was the second-largest investor to Bangladesh in 2020 as it invested $447.03 million, followed by Singapore ($334.24 million), USA ($319.68 million), South Korea ($240.09 million), Norway ($215.45 million), Hong Kong ($172.15 million), India ($155.53 million), and Thailand ($126.83 million). Senior economist Dr Zaidi Sattar told the FE that although Bangladesh was trying to attract more FDI, its policy and tariff structure were still not favourable for the overseas investors. Chinese or any other investors will not invest for manufacturing products for the Bangladeshi local consumers only--they will try to earn millions of dollars from exports. ''So, we must attract export-sitting FDI. If we fail to attract them into the export-oriented manufacturing sector with investments, they will not prefer to make investment here,'' Dr Sattar said about the flip-side of the investment situation. Besides, as long as FDI in RMG sector, the largest export-oriented industry in Bangladesh, outside the EPZ had not been allowed in a practical manner, the Chinese investment would not be coming to textile and garment sector adequately, he opined. Conversely, he added, as the Vietnamese policy was fantastic for FDI, it was grabbing billions of dollars of investment every year from China. Dr Sattar also noted that Bangladesh's position in IFC's ease-of-doing-business report was still very low. The Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam showed 109 countries and territories came to invest in 2020 in the Southeast Asian country, which, latest reports say, has overtaken Bangladesh as the second-largest apparel exporter, after China. Singaporean firms have invested US$8.0 billion in the country, the largest, beating South Korea, since last year. South Korean firms came second (invested capital worth US$3.7 billion), followed by China (invested capital worth US$ 2.4 billion), the official data from Vietnam show.
Source: The Financial Express
When Allie Cameron set out to create an intimates label with a minimal impact on the planet in 2016, she knew natural dyes were going to be non-negotiable for her. Though synthetic dyes are often cheaper and more readily available, she was convinced that making underwear without synthetic and potentially toxic colourants would be worth the effort. Five years later, Cameron’s Melbourne, Australia-based brand Hara is a cult favourite, stocked by international retailers Garmentory and The Lobby and boasting 275,000 followers on Instagram. The rainbow of underwear it offers is coloured with combinations of just three plants: turmeric, indigo and madder root. Hara’s pieces are simple, but the bright hues and on-trend styles feel youthful: there are canary-yellow bike shorts, cherry-coloured high-waisted knickers and form-fitting lilac flared lounge pants. “Natural dyes are one of the big reasons people buy from us,” Cameron says. When she started out “hardly anyone was talking about or using natural dyes”, but Cameron has seen interest grow rapidly since. Hara is one of a cohort of small labels that have been making the case for natural dyes in recent years. Max Kingery, co-founder of the brand Olderbrother, is another; the brand uses materials such as mushrooms, hibiscus flowers and tree bark to colour its gender-neutral clothing. Kingery compares working with natural dyes to shopping at a local farmer’s market rather than at a supermarket chain: the former tends to be better for the planet and just plain pleasant. Conventional textile dyes flow into nearby rivers in manufacturing hubs such as Bangladesh, where they dye the rivers black, kill off the fish, and cause skin diseases, gastrointestinal issues and cancer in nearby communities. Azo dyes that can break down into carcinogenic chemicals have been banned in the EU and a handful of other places in recent years, but there are more than 100 other synthetic dyes with cancer-causing potential still on the market. More brands are gravitating toward natural dyes for these reasons. Indie labels Mara Hoffman and Sideline recently debuted collaborations with natural dye artists Cara Marie Piazza and Ellen Mae Williams, respectively. And even larger companies are starting to get in on the action: Levi’s and Converse are integrating plant-based colours into at least some of their inventory, and fast fashion giants Mango and H&M launched natural dye capsules this year, too — the former debuted a “mineral dyed” collection of loungewear in soft shades of blue and khaki, while the latter used plant dyes to tint pieces such as a poncho-style hoodie. Kathy Hattori is the president of Botanical Colors, which has worked with Converse, Madewell and Eileen Fisher on natural dyeing. She says natural dyes don’t just make for a nice back-story — they also make for qualitatively different colours. Unlike synthetic dyes, which tend to be saturated but very flat, natural dyes allow for more nuance. “Most dye plants have multiple dye sources or chromophores in them and because of that, even if the main colour looks red, there are other colours that are helping very subtly shade it,” she says. “Our eye picks that up, even if our brain doesn’t quite process what it is.” There are other good reasons to move away from the synthetics that are so often treated as standard. According to Sarah Bellos, whose company Stony Creek Colors has partnered with Levi’s and Patagonia on large-scale natural indigo dye solutions, it generally takes half a pound of cyanide and a pound of the probable carcinogen aniline to make one pound of synthetic indigo. “Synthetic dyes are being transitioned out of food and cosmetics,” Bellos says. “That’s going to spread into textiles as we better understand that these hazardous chemicals still exist in the clothing we’re wearing today.” As much of a no-brainer as it might seem for brands to ditch the harmful chemicals that are part of the synthetic dye process, natural dye enthusiasts admit it’s not as simple as it sounds. Cameron acknowledges natural dyes as one of Hara’s greatest assets but also the brand’s “downfall”, while Kingery says “every aspect” of working with natural dyes is “extremely challenging and restrictive”. nsuring shades are colour-fast and consistent can be tricky, Cameron notes, and the colour palette, while beautiful, is more limited. Plus, it’s just not as easy or cheap to procure natural dyes as it is to buy synthetics, and natural dyes don’t adhere well to anything but natural fibres — which rules out natural dyes for any clothing made of polyester, the world’s most commonly used fibre. From Bellos’s point of view, many of these issues stem from systemic problems. The fossil fuel industry behind the petrochemicals used in synthetic dyes is often subsidised, for example, while natural dye supply chains are not. “The reason it’s harder to use plant-based colours today is because no one invested in bringing those to real scale,” she says. Bellos is working to change that by trying to transform the entire supply chain from seed genetics to growing practices to brand partnerships, starting with indigo growers and processors in the US. Along the way, she has become convinced the benefits of natural dyes go far beyond making our clothing less toxic. When grown, harvested and managed carefully, indigo plants make soil healthier by converting nitrogen in the atmosphere into a natural fertiliser of sorts in a process called nitrogen fixing. They can also serve as a carbon sink that pulls greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, she says. Plus, scalability isn’t totally unrealistic, at least with indigo. “If indigo crop was rotated with less than 1 per cent of the world cotton supply, which is grown on less than 3 per cent of the world’s farmed land, it would be enough to replace all the synthetic indigo on the planet,” she says. To get there, more investment is needed. And further research and development could address some of the colourfastness and consistency issues that Cameron raised. It’s not a scientific question of whether or not these goals are achievable — that’s already been proved, says Bellos. The real shift will happen as more people decide that removing petrochemicals from the supply chain is worth the investment of time, energy and money. As far as Hattori is concerned, the shift from synthetics towards natural dyes is already under way. “The amount of interest has just exploded in the last couple years,” she says. “There’s this intense yearning for people to get back to a much more ‘real’ experience, and natural dyes are about as real as you can get.
Source: The Financial Times
