The textile industry in Ghana is on the verge of total collapse due to the intensified illegal trade in pirated or smuggled textile fabrics from China and Far East countries.

So textile industry workers in the country are scheduled to hit the streets on July 6, 2016, to draw attention to the problem.

Textile companies have no orders and as of now some have sent about 80 per cent of their workforce home.

ATL, for example, which used to have a workforce of more than 3,000 some few years ago, now has a permanent workforce of 750. There has been shortage of materials at the factory for the past two weeks and this has been the norm for the past two years. The total workforce left at the factory is 250, comprising only the printing section and administration. The weaving and spinning department of the company, totaling about 230 workers, is currently home.

Textile manufacturing in Ghana is an industry consisting of ginneries and textile mills producing batik, wax cloth, fancy printed cloth and Kente cloth. Ghana's textile industry includes vertically integrated mills, horizontal weaving factories and the traditional textile manufacturing firms involved in spinning, hand weaving and fabric processing.