Maybe you did not realize that a variety of light, colorful, and not afraid of washing wrinkled clothes, are increasing in the closet. And most of them have one thing in common: non-cotton clothing. "The use of synthetic fibers has increased since the 1960s and natural fiber has lost a significant share of the market due to many reasons such as low cost, ease of processing, etc." In a statement from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to the newspaper, I saw the clothes out of this scene, do not smell the smoke of clothing materials war. Occupy 85% or even more of the natural fiber market share of cotton, sniper synthetic fiber to continue to conquer the city's best choice, however, this will be a bitter battle. "In the United States, cotton has recovered from the impact of synthetic fibers 35 years ago, occupying 60% of the total, but its share of the world market is falling all the way." On May 18th, the Upland Cotton Research and Extension J. Berrye Worsham, President and CEO of Cotton Incorporated, told the reporter during an interview that the price of cotton has not changed significantly from the medium to long term perspective of the past 30 years. This means that price competition with synthetic fibers is not realistic. "Our strategy is to fundamentally establish a cleaner, more eco-friendly and sustainable cotton industry chain that is an advantage of natural fibers," said Worsham. However, opinions from the industry chain involve complicated economic considerations. Stop falling prescription? "Cotton is still the dominant clothing fabric, with a rough estimate that 47% of the world's fabrics are cotton, and our largest competitor, chemical fiber, has about 40% share." Executive Director, Product Development and Promotion, Cotton Incorporated Mike Tyndall This is the description of the newspaper fabric market, the "battle." For cotton, this represents a deteriorating market environment. According to Cotton Incorporated, in 1960, cotton apparel and home textile accounted for 78% of the total retail sales of textile products, but the proportion dropped to 34% by 1975 due to the presence of synthetic fibers. The experience with other natural fibers shows from the side the situation can be even worse. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in less than 15 years, polypropylene textiles and strands have captured more than half of the sisal market and have dealt a heavy toll on sisal production in Tanzania, China and Mexico. Among them, in 1998, Tanzania, where long-term dependence on sisal as a source of major foreign exchange earnings, had its sisal output dropped to less than 10% of the 1964 peak. "The price is the main reason cotton has lost its share of the world over the past period of time," Worsham said. The first textile network data show that as of May 15, more expensive than polyester staple 4,000 yuan / ton, more expensive viscose staple 6,500 yuan / ton. The economic crisis further created numerous obstacles for the recovery of cotton consumption. "Cotton consumption growth is very sensitive to the direction of global GDP, judging by the fact that global cotton demand may drop as high as 10% this year," Worsham said. The American cotton company, which spent 13 years helping the cotton consumption in the United States to rebound from the slump, hopes to re-submit the original killer in the current environment - repurposing the image of cotton and attracting lost consumers, and this time they Choose to re-establish cotton as the most environmentally friendly clothing fabric this positioning. This is exactly the prescription submitted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Explaining why this year marks the International Year of Natural Fibers, the organization states that the main objective of the International Year of Natural Fibers is to enhance the image of natural fibers and to emphasize its value to consumers so that they can compete effectively with synthetic fibers . The problems of the textile industry come from the numbers of equipment and technology providers and indeed support the views of American cotton companies. "Traditional dyeing techniques use water to transport the fabric in the machine, and a new technology that uses the air to transport the fabric, which will help me to significantly reduce the amount of water used - to dye an ordinary T-shirt in a conventional machine using the traditional method, It consumes 200 liters of water; with air-handling technology and air-jet dyeing machines, you only need 50 liters of water, "said Tony Jones, a sales representative at Ericsson. It is reported that 85% of the water consumed by cotton textile processing comes from wet processing, mainly dyeing and finishing. However, the argument that environmental technology can become the savior of the cotton industry sounds like a paradox. Worsham acknowledged that the long-term bargaining power of cotton processing and manufacturing in the upper and middle reaches of the cotton farmer and the middle reaches relative to the sellers, and that the economic crisis has also caused the price of all the clothing fibers to fall. "Upstream cotton farmers and mid-stream manufacturing are in need of austerity cost". Investing in more environmentally friendly cotton production equipment is not cheap. In response, Tyndall agreed. "Of course, it takes a lot of initial investment." On June 1, Wu Bainian, director of Hong Kong Central Textile Co., explained to this newspaper that the return period for the new environment-friendly equipment is about 3-5 years and the investment must be carefully managed. "But frankly speaking, this is assuming that the prices of energy, water and chemicals remain unchanged. Therefore, we think it is not a good idea. But will the prices of these factors of production really rise? If the price of factors rises, I think even Will speed up the return on investment in equipment and technology. "" Seed companies, including Monsanto, have already done genetic modification of cotton varieties in the past and, having the pest-resistant genes, they no longer have to use chemical pesticides. The function of the food crops is restored (note: the seeds are edible, and cotton is also classified as a food crop in the United States), while more drought-resistant and water-less varieties may also appear in 10 to 20 years. "Worsham In this regard, the planting industry upstream of the cotton industry has already "paid homework" and now is the moment when textile companies in the middle reaches show whether they are willing to enhance their competitiveness. What we need now is the textile industry, including China, who can listen to our experience in the United States and hope they can join the ranks of enhancing the environmental competitiveness of the cotton industry chain, including China, Southeast Asia, India and Pakistan. Of the Greater Asian region together account for about 76% of global textile production capacity. "Tyndall ruled out the top level of the organization led by a group of textile equipment and technology providers from Europe and Japan in Hong Kong in May visit. "The challenge is that consumers generally do not pay for more environmentally-friendly but more expensive products." Worsham concedes that the fierce competition among retailers also leaves them unwilling to accept supplier price increases. Therefore, in the view of Wang Qianjin, chief editor of No1Net, he chose to upgrade the equipment and technology of the cotton textile industry in the background of economic crisis so as to reach the standard of sustainable development and take risks. Cotton counterattack: the textile industry in the context of the downturn, the fabric of the dispute "For the textile industry, to see the proceeds of new equipment, requires a longer process, and now its profit margins have been very narrow, the fundamentals of Chinese and American consumers There is also a huge gap between how consumers in the United States may have begun to care about how their clothes are made, but Chinese consumers may not be able to afford the extra cost. "Not to mention" In China, the consumption of cotton is relatively synthetic Fiber has remained stable, the industry also lack the need for change. " However, larger Hong Kong textile companies and foundries, including Hong Kong Central Textiles Ltd. and Uni-Garments, still choose to bet that consumers and retailers will tend to buy greener clothing. About a year ago, 25 Hong Kong textile enterprises, including the above-mentioned enterprises, formed the "Alliance for Sustainable Development of Fashion Enterprises," which Wu Bainian said is an inevitable trend. "Multinational retailers have started to review their suppliers' compliance with environmental standards. Maybe they (retailers) will not give in to the suppliers in the near term because of the price issue. However, the suppliers will have to choose whether to take the initiative to meet the challenges. Or passive response to the future situation. "Wu Bainian said. However, according to the reporter, some large Hong Kong textile enterprises have not joined the alliance yet.