There are a total of 1,826 textile and garment manufacturing units in Tunisia, which make up 32 percent of the total 5,701 industrial units in the country that employ 10 or more people, according to the recent statistics released by the Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation.
Among the textile and clothing manufacturing enterprises in the North African country, 1,527 are totally export-oriented units while the remaining 299 also cater to the domestic market, as per the data.
The 1,826 textile and apparel units together employ 174,283 people, or 33.9 percent of the overall 513,960 persons employed in Tunisian industries having 10 or more employees.
More than 800 textile and garment manufacturing industries in Tunisia have foreign participation, with 297 enterprises having French investment, 219 with investment from Italy, 99 with investment from Belgium, 74 with German investment, and another 185 with investment from other countries.
In 2013, Tunisian textiles, clothing and leather sector earned 6.227 billion Tunisian dinars from exports, while the sector imported goods worth 4.473 billion dinars, according to the data from the Tunisian National Institute of Statistics.
In the first two months of 2014, Tunisia earned 1.119 billion dinars from exports of textiles, garments and leather items, whereas the country’s imports stood at 712.9 million dinars.
