African countries posted a solid growth in apparel exports to the USA during the first five months of 2018, thanks to the FDI it attracted in the recent times. Kenya remained the largest exporter from the continent followed by Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Kenya exported apparels in the USA market worth US $ 147.78 million in the said period experiencing 11.57 per cent growth on the yearly note.
The next in lines was Lesotho which has always been underrated when it comes to apparel export market. However, the African country noted a decent growth of 9.27 per cent to ship US $ 115.51 million worth of apparels to the US market. Madagascar too showed impressive growth of 28.16 per cent on Y-o-Y basis and apparel exports to the US valued at US $ 75.83 million during the review period.
Mauritius and Morocco were also up by 5.64 per cent and 9.96 per cent in their respective exports which clocked US $ 58.13 million and US $ 60.52 million, respectively.
Further, Ethiopia, a country which is making headlines for all good reasons, got a massive boost (106.55%) in its exports to the USA. During the review period, the country exported US $ 38.90 million worth of apparels in its largest market.
It’s worth noting here that Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar and Mauritius have been leading exporters under AGOA accounting for approximately 86 per cent of the total apparel exports till May this year.
One of the major reasons for the booming garment exports from the African nations in the US market is investment by giant Bangladeshi garment groups to avail the duty privilege under the AGOA under which the African countries enjoy duty-free and quota-free access for certain goods, including garment, to the US.
