US apparel imports from Africa see 5% drop to $1,909 mn in Jan-Aug

Imports of shirts were valued at $317.055 million, accounting for 16.60 per cent, while jerseys reached $266.190 million (13.94 per cent), T-shirts $157.012 million (8.22 per cent), and innerwear $73.324 million (3.84 per cent), according to Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro.

In 2023, the United States imported $2,899.985 million worth of apparel from Africa, with trousers and shorts totalling $1,195.961 million, or 41.24 per cent of the total. Shirt imports were valued at $464.788 million (16.03 per cent), jerseys at $411.208 million (14.18 per cent), T-shirts at $253.062 million (8.73 per cent), and innerwear at $107.776 million (3.72 per cent).

Although Africa is emerging as a garment-exporting continent due to lower labour costs, its share remains small in the global garment and textile trade. The US imported apparel worth $54.106 billion in the first eight months of the current year, with African nations accounting for only 3.57 per cent of this total, as per TexPro.

In previous years, the US apparel imports from Africa were $2,520.342 million in 2022, $1,817.922 million in 2021, $1,430.343 million in 2020, and $1,805.953 million in 2019.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)