Supply Chains

Strategic sourcing is an iterative process, requiring ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and adaptation to ensure optimal supplier selection and value realisation for an enterprise. A step-by-step guide on how to go about sourcing strategically.

Researchers from the University of Portsmouth under the aegis of the Fair Trade Advocacy Office have come out with a report that reviews unfair trading practices (UTPs) in textile supply chains, along with a case study analysis of emerging best practices.

The VDMA or Verband Deutscher Maschinen-und Anlagenbau or the German Engineering Federation, representing more than 3,600 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies, employs around 3 million people in the EU-27 with more than 1.2 million in Germany alone. Focused on innovation, exports and SMEs, around 80% of the machinery sold in the EU comes from manufacturing plants in the domestic market. texfash.com in conversation with Dr Harald Weber, who has been the Managing Director of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association since January 2023.

The just-announced SLCP Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) Toolkit shows how the Converged Assessment Framework can support due diligence compliance across supply chains.

Spearheading the promotion of the textiles & fashion industry of Colombia is ProColombia, under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism. The organisation's expansive mandate includes boosting international tourism, foreign investments and non-traditional exports. Carmen Caballero, ProColombia's President, tells texfash.com how the country is working to ramp up its textiles & fashion industry.

Commodity prices have a direct bearing on farmer incomes, as do the prices that garment manufacturers are willing to pay for raw materials. Tamar Hoek, Senior Policy Director (Sustainable Fashion) at Solidaridad Network, disentangles the threads that make for these intricate relationships.

A report on fast fashion purchasing practices in the European Union paints a grim picture of the tenuous trade relations between brands and manufacturers, with business-to-business power imbalances, giving buyers even more influence in defining terms and conditions than elsewhere. 

In early February, southern Türkiye and northern Syria were devasted by a series of earthquakes, with the most severe reaching 7.8 on the Richter scale. Over 1,600 garment and close to 1,300 textile companies operate in the 11 affected provinces, with a third of the country's apparel and textile workers employed here. As Türkiye's textiles-apparel industry steps out of the ruins, it is in dire need of business.

A survey conducted by the University of Aberdeen and trade justice charity Transform Trade has said that large fashion brands sourcing clothes from Bangladesh for the UK market are allegedly paying below the cost of production.

Amazon has updated its Supply Chain Standards according to which all products sold in the Amazon Stores or products or services provided to Amazon must be manufactured, produced, or provided in accordance with the Standards and all applicable laws.