Continuing the growth in apparel exports to the US market, African countries are sending a clear message to the rest of the world that Africa certainly is an emerging apparel sourcing region. The data is recently released by OTEXA and analysed by Apparel Resources.
During the first half of 2018, Kenya topped the exporting destinations list of Africa with US $ 165 million worth of apparel exports to the USA, posting 3.92 per cent yearly growth.
Lesotho, 2nd in the list, noted double-digit growth of 16 per cent and shipped US $ 146.33 million worth of apparels to the US market. Madagascar too reported a profitable first half of 2018 and grew by 21.83 per cent on Y-o-Y basis. Madagascar exported apparels worth US $ 85.50 million to USA during January to June period this year.
On the other hand, Mauritius and Morocco were also up, though not massively, by 0.31 per cent and 3.65 per cent in their respective exports and clocked US $ 65.45 million and US $ 66.37 million, respectively.
Ethiopia grew almost two times from its export figures of the same period prior year. Posting a stellar surge of 96.28 per cent, the country exported US $ 45.16 million worth of apparels in its largest market, thanks to FDI it attracted in recent times.
However, Tanzania could not capitalise on the opportunities that USA provides and fell by 1.38 per cent to ship apparels worth US $ 18.84 million in the said period.
