In The Absence Of A Factory, The Textile Boss Smashed Up 200 Million Dollars! Business Opportunities

"The market here is like China thirty or forty years ago, and there are more business opportunities."

In Africa, "80 after" textile boss said so.

Now, more and more textile people are going to Africa. Under the "belt and road", at present, besides Southeast Asia, African countries such as Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia and Kenya become the new investment areas for Chinese textile enterprises to "go out".

African factories hit $200 million

In recent years, a large number of domestic textile and garment giants have gone to Africa to investigate, research, invest and build factories. This Zhejiang textile enterprise is also one of them.

Antai group from Zhejiang, China, has planned to invest in Ethiopia since the second half of 2018.

The plan is divided into three phases, with a total investment of $200 million.

Photo source: Xinhua News Agency

In the Adama (Adama) city, 80 kilometers southeast of Ethiopia's Addis Ababa, Antai Essex branch has established a complete production capacity supporting production base from fabric production to garment processing. It has become the first foreign enterprise in Addisababa Industrial Park to achieve export earnings.

At present, the area of Antai Essex branch is 140 thousand square meters, of which the factory covers an area of over 80 thousand square meters and employs 15000 people.

Partial photographs of Adama Industrial Park

Advantages in non investment

Africa is the second largest continent in the world. Its GDP ranks fourth among the six continents in the world. It is rich in cotton and oil resources and has great potential for economic development.

Africa has cheap manufacturing costs, low labor costs and a young population structure. It is expected that Africa will have young people between 200 million and 15 and 24 by 2025.

The foreign trade environment is excellent, and there is preferential market access policy for European and American exports.

In terms of export incentives, various incentive policies such as export tax rebate, foreign exchange convertibility, tax preferences and financing convenience are implemented.

In addition, the middle class in Africa is growing faster, and consumption in Africa is expected to reach US $1 trillion and 400 billion by 2020.

Challenges that may be faced

Although some countries are rich in raw materials such as cotton, the African industrial base is weak, and the development and matching of the textile industry chain is not perfect. Most African countries have to import large quantities of textile accessories to produce and process finished products such as garments, resulting in a long delivery cycle and unable to meet the demand for quick orders.

At the same time, the skilled labor force in Africa is short, and the wage growth of workers is relatively fast. The political and social environment is relatively unstable.

Which products in Africa are in short supply?

The population of Africa is as high as 1 billion 200 million, and the consumption market is huge, but the supplies are poor.

In addition to all kinds of daily necessities, hairdressing, hair care products and packaging materials, the demand for fabrics, accessories and clothing in the African market is very strong.

Although cotton is widely planted in Africa, the imperfect industrial chain is bruising. Whether it is cloth, fabric or finished garments, it is mainly imported.

In South Africa, for example, clothing is the largest importing category in South Africa, accounting for 69%.

Home textiles and industrial textiles accounted for 7% and textile raw materials accounted for 17%.

At present, many people in the industry have expressed great interest in the African market. They hope to seek greater development and investment opportunities in deep processing and textile industry chain products.