Ethiopia targets to increase its cotton and textiles exports to $30bn a year by 2030, from its current $145m, as part of a plan to make the nation a lower-middle-income country by 2025.
To achieve this, the Ethiopian government has invested in industrial parks and facilitated the issue of textile licenses to over 150 manufacturers to bolster the sector’s share of total exports and contribution to the Gross Domestic Product.
The availability of labour, government investment in the sector and the promising market potential as well as favourable trade agreements are some of the factors envisioned to catalyze the cotton and textiles sector’s development.
Last week, Solidaridad East and Central Africa and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH led a delegation of 10 textile manufacturers to the Texworld Paris Trade Show held on July 4-6, 2022 as part of its market linkages efforts.
The event was also attended by H.E Mr. Tarekegne Bululta, Ministry of Industry, H.E Mr Daniel Teresa, Ethiopian Investment Commission, H.E Mr. Henok Tefera, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to France, Mr. Hibret Lemma, chairman, Industrial Parks Development Coorporation Association and Mr. Eyob Bekele, Desta Garment.
During the trade show, Ethiopia’s delegation led by the Ambassador held a roundtable discussion on Ethiopia’s context and potential. The team also held a press conference with international media houses as part of the efforts to attract new investors and markets for the country’s textile sector. The textile manufacturers, who are beneficiaries of our Better Mill Initiative (BMI) project in Ethiopia also participated in business-to-business sessions with buyers.
The project aims to drive a sustainable and inclusive textiles and apparel industry that creates decent jobs and sustainable exports. BMI project is promoting cleaner production practices to reduce the environmental impact of textile processing and promote gender inclusivity and decent work, ultimately improving labour conditions in targeted factories.
The trade show was attended by players from the global textile and clothing market, with more than 400 exhibitors from about 20 countries. Major sourcing countries included China – with 140 companies across all shows – Turkey, Korea, India and Bangladesh were present.
About Solidaridad:
Solidaridad is an international civil society organization with over 50 years of experience in developing solutions to make communities more resilient — from our early roots supporting repressed communities in Latin America to our current work fostering more sustainable supply chains. We currently work in over 40 countries, on five continents, through eight independently supervised regional offices.
