Garment Industry Sees Results

The re-engineering efforts of Engineering Capacity Building Program (ecbp) in the textile and garment sector have led to tangible outcomes. According to Adugna Goa, Senior Textile Expert with ecbp, three garment factories have started exporting blouses to Europe; the first time Ethiopian garment companies have exported ready-made lady’s garments. In addition, work with other factories has led to cost saving techniques and better outputs for samples produced for potential international buyers.

“GMM, Haile, and Wossi garment factories are producing on a continuous basis for a German customer. Each of the three companies is exporting 500 blouses per week, earning about US $2-2.50 per blouse,” Adugna explained.

 

Substantial results have been observed in the aspects of wet processing and cost efficiency in Almeda Textile Company according to Adugna. “The intervention in Alemda Textile Company was on knit dye housing, and process house woven fabrics.  Accordingly, the factory which previously had been losing money, is able to save up to 60% on the woven fabrics of dark shades in the ‘Process House’ for woven fabric preparation, dyeing and printing. As a result the factory saves up to 1 million birr per month, which is up to 12 million birr annually, when all the recommendations by experts are implemented,” he said.

Adugna also points out that Mulat and Augusta Garment Companies increased their productivity by 25% each with assistance from ecbp. And another 10 garment companies received technical support in sample production which resulted in changes to their overall production layout.

 

Recently, Ethiopian garment companies have received over 20 international sample orders, and the first shipments worth 20,000 euros have already been made. In order to assist even more companies reach international markets an export promotion portal has been setup and is running with support from a local BDS provider. There are additional plans to extend it into a business support center.