Africa is going through a double whammy., as China has penetrated deeply into the African textile market, seriously dislocating the domestictextile companies in Africa . While Africa was hoping to cash in on theconcessions being extended by both the US and the EU to promote its exports toboth the countries, it is now facing a dilemma because of deluge of Chinesetextiles. What China seems to be losing in the US market, appears to be made upin the African market. In Ghana, the textile industry continues to facechallenges, amid growing competition from cheap imports from China.


According to a local source, apart from Akosombo Textile Limited (ATL),which is operating fully, household names such as Ghana Textile Print (GTP) andPrintex have all shut down their spinning and weaving departments due to cheapimports from China. These sections employed a chunk of the labour in theindustry. However, the companies could no longer afford to accommodate thesenumbers and pay several times the amount of cheap imports from China. Textiles that come from China do not only carry the designs of Ghanaian cloths, butare imitated to let them appear as if they were produced in Ghana.


Although the Chinese textiles are not durable, compared tomade-inGhana ones, they sell far below Ghanaian textiles. Consequently, mostretailers of local textile companies such as ATL, Printex, and Ghana TextilesPrints (GTP) are said to have abandoned the local cloth and are now selling waxprints from China, which is far cheaper. Due to the hardships, the companieshave all resorted to the import of gray baft and semi-finished cloth forprinting in the country.


Some members of the Textile, Garments and Leather EmployeesUnion (TEGLEU) recently revealed that the problems with Ghana's textile industry still existed and were getting worse each day. They argued thatthere was the need for Government to find out why the sector is collapsing andwhy Ghana cannot compete with China in order to find lasting solutions ratherthan taking a defeatist approach. Though stakeholders in the country have madefrantic efforts to revitalize the textile and garment industry, this seems tohave hit the rocks since the economy is recording a rapid surge in the sale offake logos and designs of Chinese textile firms in the market.


Industry watchers are worried that if the flood gates areopened for the Chinese textiles to saturate the Ghanaian market, then theindustry will totally collapse. They contended that current situation had madeit difficult for local producers of textile to sustain production levels and tooperate profitably. They believe that the dwindling fortunes can be addressedif the Government strengthens agencies such as the Customs Excise andPreventive Service (CEPS) to intensify border patrols. They further suggestedthat port operations should be tightened to ensure that cheap imports do notslip in. But how well and soon will the authorities respond to the calls thatremain an issue of concern to industry players whose hope of continued survivalin the business depend on it.

The Director General of Nigeria Textile ManufacturingAssociation (NTMA), Jolaoso Olarewaju, said between 1996 and 2006, the numberof employees on the association's employment data had reduced from 250,000 toless than 30,000. He said within the period under review, the numbers of closedtextile companies namely Kaduna Textile Mill, UNT PLC, Supertex, Enpee,Afprint, among others also fell to one fourth, while cumulative productiondropped from 1.5 billion to less than 400 million metres of fabrics per year.He attributed most of the problems affecting operators in the sector tosmuggling, faking and counterfeiting of locally made fabrics by the Chinese.Low cost imports from China have largely devastated the Nigerian textile andother consumer industries at Kano and Kaduna. South Africa is another countrythat provides a good example. Reports say Chinese exports of textiles to South Africa grew from 40 percent of clothing imports to 80 percent by the end of 2004.


Originallypublished in The Stitch Times: January 2010