The Sunday News
Roberta Katunga Senior Business Reporter
THE country’s clothing sector is anticipating an estimated $1 million worth of business following serious enquiries and business leads made at this year’s edition of the Source Africa event held in South Africa. Source Africa is an annual Pan-African textile, clothing and footwear trade event which encourages linkages between buyers, manufacturers and suppliers, investment into manufacturing capacity in Africa and accelerating job creation. This year’s event was held on 10 and 11 June in Cape Town.
Zimbabwe Clothing Manufacturers Association (ZCMA) chairman Mr Jeremy Youmans said participation of the sector at the event was meant to raise the country’s profile and show people that there was still a vibrant clothing industry in Zimbabwe.
“We got a lot of enquiries on our products and a number of participants at the event showed interest in the products and some manufacturers are anticipating setting up factories here. Following business leads made in Cape Town, we anticipate business worth about $1 million a year and it can be a lot more than that,” said Mr Youmans.
He said there were lots of discussions with various companies and associations that include American Apparel Footwear as the sector strove to build relations with different stakeholders from the region and globally. He said the main reason for participating at Source Africa was to make people aware of what Zimbabwe has to offer.
“We also took the opportunity to lobby our Clothing Indaba that will be held in October and a lot of regional players committed to participating at the Indaba,” Mr Youmans said.
Speaking on the performance of the clothing industry, Mr Youmans said although most companies were still suffering, growth was coming up slowly.
He said the industry was struggling with low capacity utilisation.
“We need support not only from Government but from the private sector as well. As a sector we urge companies especially from the mining sector to procure locally so as to allow us to become more competitive,” said Mr Youmans.
He bemoaned the validation process at ports of entry which he described as weak as goods which are from outside the region find their way into the country under the pretence of being from neighbouring countries like South Africa. Mr Youmans said imported goods should pay duty to level the playing field with locally manufactured goods.
The textile and clothing industry at its peak used to employ at least 35 000, but the figure has since plunged to about 8 000 due to a myriad of problems bedeviling the industry.
Last year, Government in partnership with the private sector launched the cotton-to-clothing strategy as part of efforts to revive the sector.
