Taiwan has been exporting substantial volume of cotton denim fabric mainly to Taiwanese owned cut and sew operations around the world.
Exports started showing a downward trend in 2005 which continued in 2006 with decline in shipments to Kenya, Philippines, South Africa, Venezuela and Hong Kong.
January shipments fell 19.6 percent to 1,919,362 kilograms.
Nicaragua, the second largest export market of 2005, registered decline in January shipment by 13.6 percent to 303,653 kilograms.
Weaker shipments were also noticed to the United States, South Africa, Hong Kong, Egypt and Vietnam.
Decline of Taiwan owned cut and sew operations in South Africa, became the major factor in reducing cotton denim fabric export demand.
January shipments to South Africa declined 76.4 percent from year-ago levels.
South African's approach has generally been uncompetitive against China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and others.
Taiwan imports marginal volume of high quality of cotton denim fabric, mainly from Japan.