The textile division of Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms (IIP), based in the UAE, has joined the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) as a new corporate member.

Arise IIP identifies industrial gaps in African countries to unlock value and create new industries. The objective is to industrialise key sectors by creating local transformation, maximising production, efficiency and cost, which in turn generates local value addition.

The organisation seeks to boost exports, enable the local transformation of raw materials and promote trade by tailor-made special economic zones in Gabon, Benin and Togo. In Benin and Togo, Arise IIP will focus on creating value chains for the textile industry – from raw material sourcing to resource transformation through manufacturing, to exporting final products.

In November, Arise IIP announced a partnership with FibreTrace, a leader in traceable fibre technology, to develop a new pilot programme enabling spinner-to-garment traceability for the Arise IIP spinning facilities at the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ) in Benin – a first for the fast-emerging African textile sector.

Benin is expected to have 98,000 tons of lint cotton processing capacity per annum by the end of 2023.

To guarantee the traceability of the cotton, FibreTrace embeds luminescent pigments on the fibre at the spinning mill. The pigments, indestructible throughout the entire textile processing cycle, can be read and tracked at every stage of the supply chain, and each audit is recorded on the blockchain making the information secured, accessible and irrefutable.

The ITMF, founded in 1904 is the international forum of the global textile value chain. Its members are from textile and apparel producing countries representing 90% of global production.

“By becoming a corporate member of ITMF, Arise IIP will benefit from a unique international network, the expertise of ITMF, and an international platform for the global textile value chain where international trends are discussed,” said Dr Christian Schindler, director general of ITMF. “Likewise, ITMF and its members will benefit from the activities of Arise in West Africa”.

“By joining the ITMF we have access to all major players in the global textile and apparel value chain,” said Arise IIP Textile Division CEO Rajaguru Raja. “The world is becoming more and more integrated and cooperation along the global textile value chain and understanding its complexity and dynamics are paramount.”

www.ariseiip.com

www.itmf.org