Cheap imports cripple clothing sector viability

THE Zimbabwe Clothing Manufacturers Association (ZCMA) has blamed cheap imported clothing into the country for crippling the sector whose employment figures have plummeted to 6 500 from a peak of 35 000.

Khothama vendors in Front of Shops

Over the past two decades, Zimbabwe has experienced an influx of second-hand clothing from all over the world mainly from Europe, rendering the local clothing industry uncompetitive due to stiff competition.

Cheap second-hand clothing is a common phenomenon in Zimbabwe and has in recent years become big competition to formal business.

Second-hand dealers normally display their products on streets and pavements where they largely cater for the low-income market.

ZCMA believes that while the local clothing industry still presents opportunities for massive job creation and value addition, the sector’s potential is also being handicapped by obsolete equipment and a lack of capital to retool. ZCMA chairman, Mr Jeremy Youmans, who is also the Association of Cotton Value Adders of Zimbabwe (ACVAZ) vice-chairman has said most of the capacity to rebuild to the former figures is still sluggish.

“The influx of second-hand clothing has been an impediment to the growth of the local clothing industry. “Although legislation is in place to make the importation of second-hand clothing subject to import licensing, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and Zimra (Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) have not been able to have any noticeable effect in controlling this problem.

ZIMRA

“It is believed the bulk of second-hand clothing comes from the United Kingdom and Denmark via NGO’s Oxfam and DAPP (Development Aid from People to People),” he said.

“The clothing sector in Zimbabwe used to employ 35 000 people and most of the capacity to rebuild to this figure from the current 6 500 employees is still in situ and awaiting utilisation once sufficient orders and supply of raw materials are achieved.”

Mr Youmans said dealing with second-hand clothing at source may bear fruits.
“It is estimated that the supply of second-hand clothing from the European Union countries cost Comesa (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) countries over one million jobs in five years,” he said.

Zimbabwe is a member of Comesa, which is a 21-member trading bloc that also includes Zambia, Eswatini, Malawi, Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, Djibouti, Comoros, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius, Sudan, Tunisia, Somalia, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The bloc, which forms a major marketplace for internal and external trading, has a population of over 583 million and a Gross Domestic Product of US$805 billion, a global export/import trade in goods worth US$324 billion.”-chronicles