Ethiopian textile & clothing industry on expansion drive

14 Dec '12

2 min read

Ethiopian textile and clothing industry has experienced a major expansion drive and several leading retailers are now sourcing their textile and clothing requirements from the country, allAfrica news agency reported.

The list of retailers sourcing from Ethiopia include, UK retailers like Tesco, Primark and H&M, while the Ethiopian Textile and Garment Manufacturers Association sees still more retailers coming in.

The association President Ato Fassil Tadesse said that presently around 10 percent of Ethiopia’s textile and clothing exports are towards the UK, and around 50 percent are absorbed by other European countries, while the rest 40 percent are destined to the US market.

During last fiscal, Ethiopia’s textiles and clothing exports surged by 28 percent year-on-year to US$ 84.6 million, inspired by which the Government has set a target of taking the industry’s exports to US$ 1 billion by 2016.

The Government has also set a target of attracting around US$ 1.6 billion in foreign direct investment by 2016 to facilitate construction of around 200 new textile and clothing units.

For expansion, the industry would mainly focus on increasing domestic cotton output. Ethiopia has about three million hectares of land suitable for cotton cultivation, but presently cotton cultivation is actually done on only 30,000-40,000 hectares of land.

Mr. Tadesse said the goals set by the Government are very likely to be met as there is an increase in flow of investments from foreign producers, particularly from India, China and Turkey, as well as from domestic firms.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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