Africa is emerging as a major apparel producing and supplying hub in the world.
According to experts at the Asian Sustainable Textile Summit last month, textile manufacturing is shifting from Asia to Africa due to cost saturation in Asia. Apparel exports from Africa crossed $2bn for the first time in Q1 of this year. Shipment reached $2.083bn in the period and slipped slightly to $1.953bn in Q2 of 2022. The exports had fallen to $0.764bn in Q2 of 2020 due to COVID. The figures suggest that the exports from Africa are increasing gradually. The continent exported apparel worth $1.380bn in Q1 2021. Apparel exports quickly recovered from the disruption in Q2 2020 and reached $1.667bn in Q3 and $1.597bn in Q4 of the same year. In 2021, Africa’s exports stood at $1.674bn in Q1, $1.703bn in Q2, $1.923bn in Q3 and $1.989bn in Q4. The annual exports also show gradual growth as the continent exported apparel worth $7.291 billion in 2021, $5.409 billion in 2020, $6.561 billion in 2019 and $6.442 billion in 2018.
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