For the first time ever, Ethiopia is about to hit US $ 100 million mark in its apparel export to USA. According to recently released data by OTEXA and analysed by Apparel Resources, it was figured out that Ethiopia experienced staggering growth of 112.69 per cent to clock US $ 90.51 million during January to October ’18 period as compared to US $ 42.55 million in the corresponding period last year.
However, despite the massive escalation in value, Ethiopia remained on 5th spot in top African exporters tally which ship apparels to USA. Kenya, once again, topped the list with US $ 330.27 million (up 15.42%) worth of apparel shipment to USA which is nearly 4 times more than what Ethiopia earned in 10-month period of ongoing calendar year.
Second on the list was Lesotho which performed exceptionally well and grew 4.82 per cent on y-o-y basis to ship US $ 252 million worth of apparels to USA. Mauritius and Morocco grabbed 3rd and 4th spot in the list and jumped 0.80 per cent and 4.16 per cent to touch US $ 128 million and US $ 114.63 million, respectively in their apparel export to USA.
The surge noted by all these African destinations can be attributed to the fact that cut-throat competition over labour wages among the Asian apparel manufacturing giants is pushing the need for apparel sourcing towards the under developed and developing countries outside Asia where apparel sector seems to be unexplored for a long time. Africa is gradually becoming that go-to location for apparel manufacturing and since the continent gets slashed tariff under AGOA scheme, the rise is export to the USA is no surprise.
