Originally Posted by Jo Mama
Originally Posted by Japonica
Originally Posted by QKO
Fabric prices at the wholesale level have just taken another jump, most have gone up at least .25/yd for new stuff being ordered now. That's an increase just in 2010 of .65 to 1.00 dollar/yd. And I fear it isn't going to stop for awhile... :-( :-(
Saw on the news yesterday that cotton prices went up 400% due to the rains in Pakistan. What??????????????
Gee - where's all the cotton going that is grown in California and Alabama??
Thanks for the info.
It pretty much all goes to China, where it is woven into greige goods, the base stocks for printing fabrics. Then it is marketed back out to the mills for printing and finishing. Some weaving is also done in other countries, but China pretty much has a monopoly on greige goods, and they're now raising prices after artificially holding them down for years. Crop failures are also contributing to the worldwide shortage of cotton greige goods.
We just went on a short buying trip yesterday, and all the fabrics are up at least .25/yd for next quarter at the wholesale level. We've been trying to absorb a lot of the price increases so far, but we're at the point where we're going to have to pass those increases along, or go out of business. It's as simple as that.
Someone else remarked that If you get a .25 increase at the wholesale level, you get a .50 increase at the retail level. In some shops that may be true, but so far most people I know have just been passing along their increases, or absorbing part of them, i.e. sharing the increases with their customers.