The Cape has identified its once thriving clothing and textile industry as a vehicle for export growth, with a research study set to be commissioned next year. The objective of the research is to unpack the economic contribution of the sector and identify export opportunities, according to James Vos, City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management. “It will map the sector’s value chain and identify potential opportunities and inherent constraints for the local industry,” said Vos. It is estimated that at present the clothing and textile industry contributes R4.4 billion to the metro’s export sector. “It contributed just under 1% of the city’s total economic output in 2017 and 0.54% of the growth in economic output between 2007 and 2017,” said Vos.
“The latter figure speaks to the fact that, like other manufacturing sectors, the industry has become less important as a driver of the city’s economy in the past decade as it becomes more tertiarysector orientated in line with other large cities in emerging countries. These figures, however, belie the importance of the industry in two other important respects, namely its impact on employment and exports.” According to Vos the industry is the most labour-intensive sector outside of tourism and the primary sector, which means that the job return on investment tends to be higher than in other sectors. According to MEC of economic opportunities, Beverley Schäfer, it remains concerning that the province, like the country, imported too much, while contributes R4.4 billion to the metro’s export sector. producing too little. “As a country, our imports of clothing, textiles and leather goods have rocketed from just over R5 billion in 2000 to almost R60 billion now,” she said. Schäfer and Vos believe that the revival of the clothing and textile industry in the Western Cape will improve the local manufacturing sector, creating much-needed jobs across the province. It will also increase exports and reduce the need to import. “In the clothing and textile sector, South African labour is 45% cheaper than in China at the moment and it makes no sense that we are not producing more locally,” said Schäfer. Vos said the Cape region was historically known for its clothing and textile production, and rebuilding it made sense as the skills were already readily available.
But he said there were some challenges to overcome including blanket government policy on fabric import duty that resulted in high input costs for apparel manufacturers. “There is also very limited local manufacture of fabrics, insufficient fabric conversion capabilities, ie, dyeing, printing etc – and of course the high capital costs of investing in the textile industry.” Vos, however, maintained that these were not insurmountable. “The industry is currently exploring a number of opportunities such as bringing back apparel sourcing locally, away from
China, which will create opportunities for the domestic industry to reclaim its prominence. The growing value of quick response in the context of “fast fashion” is leading retailers to favour sourcing options from local suppliers,” he said.
In the clothing and textile sector, South African labour is 45% cheaper than in China. – Beverley Schäfer
