Proving resilience: “Made In Ethiopia” exhibits a wide variety of production capacities at Texworld

After a delay of one year due to COVID-19, the Texworld Fair is confirmed to take place this year between the 4th and 6th of July in Paris, France. Ethiopia will be showcasing products from ten companies.

Texworld Evolution Paris Fair attracts more than 1,500 exhibitors from the fashion industry worldwide. While last year was challenging for the whole global supply chain, the “Made In Ethiopia” pavilion will demonstrate that local and international industries proved highly resilient.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Industry (MoI) and the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) joined forces with the Sustainable Industrial Clusters - a Germany and UK funded project supporting Ethiopia - and Solidaridad Network to form a coalition of Export Champions. A combination of local Ethiopian and foreign textile and garment factories were selected based on stringent criteria such as product quality and production capacity.

H.E. Mr Tarekegn Bululta Godana, the State Minister of the MoI, declared, “Made In Ethiopia is the emerging vision of the government engagement in reforms to ease the doing of business and fostering Ethiopia’s industrial capacity.” The state minister added, “While we acknowledge that the country has experienced a difficult time, we observed that the textile and garment sector was savvy and never stopped to deliver its products to international markets. We wish to continue supporting such undertaking, and Texworld presents a timely opportunity.”

In terms of value and investment, “The textile and garment sector is essential for our exports’ growth, jobs creation, foreign earnings and investment”, stated Mr Daniel Teresa Shone, the Deputy Commissioner of the EIC. He further noted, “The entire sector represents more than 100,000 jobs, hundreds of millions of Euros of investments and an export increase of 260% in value in ten years (¹). Ethiopia acquired a favourable position in the global value chain, and we aim at preserving it.”

Following the suspension of Ethiopia from the AGOA (²), exhibiting at Texworld serves as a long-term investment to showcase Ethiopia’s production capacities to Europe. While Ethiopia has (temporarily) lost its tax-free status to the American market, it continues to be a beneficiary of the “Everything But Arms” (EBA) preferential free trade agreement with the European Union. Europe is the world’s largest importer of apparel and textiles (€127.4 billion in 2020) and represented 21.3% of the world’s apparel and textile imports value in 2019. Ethiopian textile exports only reached USD 30m in 2020/21. According to a current exhibitor of the fair, “There is a room for improvement in this field.”

One exhibitor noted, “It is good to be exhibiting again by showcasing a solid group focused on one objective: delivering on time and being reliable. This is the recipe for long-term business relations.” Ethiopia has accumulated international references as a sourcing destination. Large buyers and wholesalers such as H&M, PvH, Diesel, Champro Sports, Lidl, Decathlon, The Children Place and Zara continue to play a significant role to increase sourcing orders from Ethiopia.

About the Ethiopian delegation:

The Ministry of Industry’s mission is to promote and expand the development of the industry by creating a conducive enabling environment for the development of investment and technological capacity of the industry sector by rendering efficient support and services to the development investor. It is responsible for formulating policies, strategies, programs, and legal frameworks that ensure the development of the manufacturing industry in a sustainable manner. Its mandate includes designing detailed programs compatible with the national development plan and implementing the same upon approval to create an enabling system for enhanced participation and the role of domestic and foreign investors in the investment of the manufacturing industry sector.

The Ethiopian Investment Commission is an autonomous government institution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia responsible for promoting the country’s investment opportunities. Serving as a gateway for foreign investors, the commission is the only public investment promoting agency (IPA) mandated with attracting, administering, and regulating investment with a special focus on FDI attraction, facilitation, and aftercare of a transparent and efficient investment administration system in Ethiopia. 

In line with the Ethiopian Home-Grown Economic Reform, the British and German governments are supporting the country’s pathway towards industrialization through the implementation of a joint project named Sustainable Industrial Clusters (S.I.C.). The project is implemented under the umbrella of the German Cooperation by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH with a co-financing agreement between the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The project has the objective of fostering job-effective growth while improving social and environmental sustainability in Ethiopia’s manufacturing sector.

Solidaridad is a global network civil society organization that brings together supply chain actors and engages them in innovative solutions to improve production, ensuring the transition to a sustainable and inclusive economy that maximizes the benefit for all.

About the German development cooperation 

The German Development Cooperation has been supporting the Ethiopian Government initiatives for over 50 years. We work together with our partners in support of their socio-economic reform agenda, aiming to reduce poverty, promote economic growth, and create jobs. Our work contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and is implemented in line with the Ethiopian-German cooperation agreements.

1. Textile and garment exports represented USD41.8m in 2010 and reached USD 147.1m in 2021. Source: World Bank and Ethiopian Customs Commission, 2021.

2. AGOA was suspended on the 1st of January 2022 – customs duties apply fully to Ethiopian imports in the US market. 

Author: GIZ
Photographs: ©GIZ
Publishing date: 29 June 2022