Tunisia draws EU apparel retailers with faster turnaround times

06 Mar '09

5 min read

5. Sampling readily available.
TFCE would either provide sketches or make up from a customer's design. Soprodite quoted one week to convert a sketch into a pattern and sample if the fabric was to hand.

6. Quality.
Tunisia aims to produce better designs, more varied fabrics and in small quantities than what they regard as a run of the mill, basic quality, low cost products in China, India and Bangladesh. The ranges seen at TFCE and Essel were good examples of this.

7. Environmental and social standards.
Tunisia's labour law of 48 hours working week and a minimum wage is subject not only to Government inspection but also to audit by their UK customers. Soprodite, for example, reported audits by staff from Next, Arcadia and M&S from the UK. Firms are proud they do not use harmful chemicals and are certified as meeting Oeko-tex standards. Additionally the Textile Institute CETTEX has extensive laboratories for testing fabrics and yarns to ensure they meet EN, BS, NF etc standards for durability, colour fastness, stretching etc. It is accredited by Next to test fabrics for those Tunisian firms.

8. Political and economic stability.
Retail inflation has averaged less than three per cent annually since 2000. The Tunisian Dinar has broadly maintained its value against the Sterling, although exporters often quote prices in Euros.

9. Integrated vertical production.
Two of the largest firms seen, TFCE and VTL, have processes that involve them in buying unbleached yarn, then dye, knit, wash and made-ups. The smaller firms buy fabrics, with only a small number of specialist dyeing and Spinning firms in Tunisia, from some garment firms commission yarn and fabric dyeing in nearby Italy.

Among woven fabrics, Sitex make Swift denim fabric in Tunisia. Other denim for Tunisia's large output of jeans (18% of all production) and other fabrics not supplied by the client are mainly imported from Turkey despite a 12 day shipping time. Indeed, the 12 per cent growth in Tunisian garment exports to over €4000 million in 2007 testifies that the firms are successful without an incountry facility. The duty free entry into EU of Tunisian garments incorporating Turkish fabric is assisting this process.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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