The clothing industry represents one of the best opportunities to speedily generate jobs and retain value addition within the country. Most developing countries have used the clothing sector as a driver of value added growth within their economic growth strategies and there is no reason why Zimbabwe should not be able to do so as well.

Whilst the economy is dominated by mining and agriculture, it is vital to also develop value addition within the country by developing the manufacturing sector as well. Exported raw materials and imported finished goods both deny the country true growth, as the value addition, along with the jobs to create it, is used and realised in another country.

The more value addition that is done in Zimbabwe, the more jobs that will be created; the more import substitution that will be effected and higher value exports will be created. Both will have a significant effect on the balance of payments problem the country currently faces, which is restricting so many other economic activities.

The clothing industry is especially efficient as an economic driver since it is so labour intensive. It also has low capital requirements, low energy and services requirement. Further, its impact on the environment is considerably low.

Many industries are using technology to substantially reduce direct labour content, but clothing manufacture cannot be substantially effected by technology as robots and computerisation are unable to deal with the flexibility and non-consistency of fabric. Most of the processes need human participation and that will not change in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it will always remain a high employment sector.

Zimbabwe needs to drastically grow its formal employment, and the clothing industry provides a basis to do this. Most countries that have developed their clothing industry have been able to use this as a base to develop and integrate their cotton value chains – China and Bangladesh being two of the biggest examples. They developed the clothing sector first so that the demand for the next stage in the value chain is already present. Such models are attractive to investment as investors do not need to develop their market, as it already exists. This is known as a market-driven development of value chains, as opposed to production-driven development.

Historically, Zimbabwe has used a production-driven model. But this approach often leads to production of goods which are not to the markets requirements and there is often a disconnect between the stages in the value chain, as is the case in Zimbabwe at present. Zimbabwe exports 98 percent of it’s cotton lint. Of the lint, most of the cotton yarn is exported to South Africa.

A market-driven approach would develop the whole value chain, including the production of edible oils and animal feed as by-products of the cotton seed. The Zimbabwe Clothing Manufacturers Association believes that the single biggest factor restricting an exponential growth of the clothing sector is the lack of access to competitive raw materials, particularly fabric.

Though there is a small range of fabrics available from local suppliers, these are not available in all constructions, finishes or even all colours. There is, however, concern about their uncompetitive price, their poor quality, particularly in the finishing, for example, dyeing and wet-processing. In addition, suppliers are largely inefficient. What is also worrying is that even though the bulk of the fabrics are imported, manufacturers are struggling to get forex allocations from banks.

Relying on imported clothing items is not sustainable. Although stakeholders, including Government, managed to create the Association of Cotton Value Adders of Zimbabwe (ACVAZ) in order to coordinate the cotton to clothing strategy (2014-2019), lack of funding has paralysed its operations. ACVAZ is convinced that the basis of the cotton value chain development is from a focus on quality and marketing of ecologically grown cotton.

The resources to develop all stages at one time are simply not available. The cotton growing stage must focus on quality and yield to ensure that it becomes viable for the farmer.- state media