Africa is emerging as a major apparel producing and supplying hub in the world. Textile manufacturing is now shifting from Asia to Africa due to cost saturation in the former continent, said experts at the Asian Sustainable Textile Summit last month. Apparel exports from Africa crossed $2 billion for the first time in the first quarter (Q1) of this year. 

The shipment reached $2.083 billion in the period and slipped slightly to $1.953 billion in the second quarter of 2022. The exports had fallen to $0.764 billion in the second quarter of 2020 due to the pandemic. The continent exported apparel worth $1.380 billion in Q1 2021, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro. 

Apparel exports quickly recovered from the disruption in Q2 2020 and reached $1.667 billion in the third quarter and $1.597 billion in the fourth quarter of the same year. In 2021, Africa’s exports stood at $1.674 billion in Q1, $1.703 billion in Q2, $1.923 billion in Q3 and $1.989 billion in Q4. The figures suggest that the exports from Africa are increasing gradually. The annual exports also show gradual growth as the continent exported apparel worth $7.291 billion in 2021, $5.409 billion in 2020, $6.561 billion in 2019 and $6.442 billion in 2018, as per TexPro. 

Experts felt in the summit held in New Delhi in September 2022 that higher cost of production is driving textile manufacturing towards emerging markets. Earlier, the developed world was a major manufacturing hub. But the industry shifted to the developing world and Asia became a prominent supplier. Now, the industry is shifting towards lesser developed countries, so Africa is emerging as a new manufacturing hub. 

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)

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