Africa has 'fighting chance' as global textile source

Africa will only become a significant sourcing destination for textile and clothing buyers from the US and Europe if it invests significantly in its infrastructure. Speaking at Source Africa 2014, the textile, apparel and footwear trade event at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) last week, Siraj Kapasi, director of Ashton Apparels in Kenya, said while the continent held a lot of promise, it remained an extremely difficult environment in which to operate, with huge logisticsrelated costs. “Whether Africa will be successful in becoming the next sourcing destination will depend on individual governments and how keen they are to enhance local exports, how keen they are to be on an international map and what they will do to secure that. The first step is to build infrastructure – good roads, transport in and out of ports, dependable ports that are not congested, water, electricity and telecommunications. That is going to make or break this.” He said while the interest and awareness was there, the decision-making and actual sourcing had yet to follow. “Africa is going to have to speed up its delivery process if it wants to grab this opportunity.” Global demand for textiles and clothing is increasing. US demand alone is valued at around $101 billion and the EU $234 billion. With Asia – the dominant supplier of product in the market – facing cost pressures, buyers have started looking elsewhere. And while there is a keen interest in Africa, the possibility of other regions grabbing the opportunity exists. South America is an especially keen contender. “Africa has two negatives that it has to address,” said Fassil Tadesse, president of the Ethiopian Textile & Garment Manufacturers' Association (ETGAMA), “and those are the high logistics costs and corruption. It drives up cost and makes the continent uncompetitive. There is major opportunity here and the continent is on the threshold of it.” According to Dev Chamroo, CEO of Enterprise Mauritius, getting the right government-led framework in place and having the proper institutions in place are just as important as infrastructure investment. “All three must be assembled otherwise Africa will remain a talk-talk continent and it will not be walking the talk,” he said. “It all comes down to the reliability. A business with a defined budget sourcing product will not return to an arena where project costs change, or the product is not on the table at the agreed time, or the quality is not up to standard. They do not compute in African terms and do not understand indefinite postponements or increased costs.” Delegates attending Source Africa 2014 were in agreement that Africa had a fighting chance to become the new sourcing destination of the world, but it would have to move quickly to secure it.