COTTON USA Buyers Tour to Southeast Asia Successfully Concludes in Thailand
Twenty-seven global buyers and retailers from the U.S., and six countries in Europe and Asia joined CCI's COTTON USA Supply Chain Marketing Buyers Tour to Southeast Asia held in Bangkok, Thailand. The group met with U.S. cotton textile and apparel suppliers from across Southeast Asia.
To provide sourcing options for the brands and retailers, 39 COTTON USA licensed suppliers with production facilities in five countries across Southeast Asia traveled to CCI's private trade fair in Bangkok where they promoted their U.S. cotton-rich fabrics and garments.
The Buyers Tour incorporated a briefing session explaining the benefits of sourcing from Thailand and the ASEAN region, a two-day trade fair and tours to fabric and garment manufacturing facilities located on the outskirts of Bangkok. Cotton Incorporated also supported the event with recruitment of participants and a presentation of their recent knit and woven product developments.
The event provided opportunities for overseas buyers to meet the entire supply chain in one location. Suppliers of cotton yarn, knit fabrics and apparel and woven fabrics and apparel suppliers from across the ASEAN region gathered at the CCI event to streamline the sourcing process and reinforce long-term business for retailers, manufacturers and the cotton industry alike. Mills and manufacturers in the ASEAN region are taking proactive steps to cooperate and form alliances to serve the needs of the apparel buyer who buys fabrics or finished garments. This cooperation gives ASEAN suppliers a stronger competitive position than they had previously.
Suppliers at the trade fair indicated that the COTTON USA Buyers Tour provided a platform for them to meet new buyers from overseas markets and helped to enhance their business relationships with existing customers. Most participants expressed their confidence that contacts made during the trip would lead to developing business ties and consequently increase sales of U.S. cotton.
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COTTON USA SCM Program Brings Apparel Executives to Bangladesh for Sourcing Tour
For years the COTTON USA Supply Chain Marketing Program has organized tours for select groups of buyers in countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, India and Pakistan, but a tour in April broke new ground by visiting Bangladesh for the first time. Apparel executives were given unique opportunities to explore new markets and discover the advantages of sourcing U.S. cotton-rich fabrics and garments from key suppliers.
The four-day event kicked off with a briefing session designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the Bangladeshi market and the importance of U.S. cotton in textile and apparel production. COTTON USA was joined by Cotton Incorporated, the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to give presentations. Buyers gained even further insight into the market when they heard from Li & Fung, the world's largest sourcing company, about its experience regarding doing business in Bangladesh.
Advantages offered by the trade fair enabled buyers to optimize their time by having individual meetings in one location with 17 COTTON USA licensees, ranging from vertically integrated spinning mills to key users of U.S. cotton-rich yarns and fabrics. They also had the chance to visit six of the most significant suppliers, who produce lightweight and heavyweight jerseys, sweaters, interlock and pique, and see their production facilities.
Feedback from the tour has been very positive. Buyers found it interesting and well organized, and have indicated they are now more willing to source from Bangladesh and are expecting to do business over the next year with the companies they met there.
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COTTON USA Buyers Tour to China Fast-Tracks the Sourcing Process
The COTTON USA Supply Chain Marketing (SCM) Program hosted its fifth Buyers Tour to China in June, the largest apparel buyers' tour recorded in the history of the SCM Program. The event enabled buyers representing 25 brands and retailers, including Benetton, Debenhams, Max Mara, M&S, Polo Ralph Lauren and Quiksilver, to conveniently explore the advantages of sourcing U.S. cotton-rich garments from a wide range of selected suppliers. This year's tour differed from previous years, as suppliers from other parts of Asia with strong textile economies such as Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam were also invited, a move that was well received among the attendees. The week opened with an extensive briefing session that included introductions to CCI and new Cotton Incorporated product developments. The briefing session continued with a one-and-a-half day trade show and two days of factory visits in Hangzhou and Guangzhou where the buyers were able to inspect a number of selected companies' manufacturing facilities, and view U.S. cotton-rich woven fabrics and garments.
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