Global exhibition organiser Messe Frankfurt unveiled a new eco-textile labelling system at the recently-held Interstoff Asia Essentials show in Hong Kong in a bid to help brands and retailers select fabrics that are really sustainable.

The European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing (Textile ETP) is to seek around € 100 million in further funding – in a bid to build the world’s most advanced, automated sustainable garment manufacturing line.

IMB 2009 – World of Textile Processing – is the leading international procurement, service and information platform for all technologies and services for the processing of flexible materials. Nearly all relevant suppliers were be represented here in Cologne from 21 to 24 April 2009.

The Soil Association has said that the sales value of organic textiles and clothing in the UK could nearly triple to £ 280 million in 2012 from sales of £ 100 million last year.

The Indian Textile Accesories and Machinery Manufacturers Association (ITAMMA) recently organised the inauguration of the Video Conferencing System at its premises in Mumbai. There was a live discussion with other Centres, viz, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Jaipur. Many issues of topical interest were discussed and the vision statement on the activities of the Association for the next few years were also discussed.

The use of textile care labelling code by manufacturers and distributors has to be allowed by the COFREET and GINETEX, who own the rights of the collective trademarks registered at INPI and WIPO (n° 06/3430 498, n°849 319 and n°849 320). The COFREET care labelling code is based on the five basic pictograms with additional distinguishing marks, eg, bars, dots, letters, ciphers or the St Andrew’s cross to express recommendations for correct care treatments without the use of language.

As virtual reality takes over from conventional sampling, and new software aids collection management, IMB exhibitors at Cologne, Germany presented a variety of tools developed to bring good design to market fast and effectively assuring cost savings, global communication and high quality in one run.

The Chinese economy is likely to recover by the second half of this year and could help to pull Asia out of its slump, the World Bank has forecast.

According to Customs data in China, the accumulated export of textile and garment from that country were 34.062 billion USD in the first three months, down 9.03% to the same period of last year. Nevertheless, it shows a little recovery compared with 14.54% negative growth rate in first two months. The textile export were 12.017 billion USD, down 15.6%; Garment 22.045 billion USD, down 5%.

The Australian Wool Production Forecasting Committee says Australia's premium fibre continues to be in short supply because of poor rainfall across south-east Australia and lower than expected fleece weights. The Committee also expects that supply will not rebound in 2009/10.

Pakistan's Textile Ministry has finalised textile policy for next fiscal year, with a likely emphasis on single digit mark-up and special power tariff for the textile industry. All textile sector associations and the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, were taken on board before finalising the textile policy.

The Japan Textile Machinery Association reported that the nation’s production of textile machinery decreased by 70.9% in February from the same month of last year to 7,595 million yen. As a result of stagnant exports to China and other Asian countries, production has been at a low level since the second half of last year, but production rose by 41.2% compared to the previous month.