Amid a strong demand for lint from domestic mills and its potential to supply manufacturers exporting clothing and textiles to the US under a preferential trade deal, Kenya plans to revive its cotton industry, a major foreign-exchange earner until the 1980s. The government is planning to train and offer credit facilities for farmers as part of a bid to restore production that peaked at 38,000 metric tons of seed cotton in 1984-85. Currently, the country produces 15,700 tons of seed cotton creating about 5,240 tons of lint. Demand is about 37,000 tons with the shortfall imported from neighbouring countries, says Fanuel Lubanga, a development manager at the state-run Agriculture and Food Authority, Kenya.
The initiative comes as manufacturers in East Africa’s biggest economy are counting on apparel exports to the U.S. growing 5 per cent this year after the US extended its African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, by a decade. East Africa could potentially export garments worth $3 billion annually by 2025, says a 2015 McKinsey report. Affordable electricity and cheap labour with monthly salaries as low as $60 make producers such as Kenya and Ethiopia attractive to investors, the study indicated. Kenya exported clothing worth $380 million in 2015, with companies including Puma SE, Walmart, JC Penny and H&M among those sourcing garments from Kenyan Export Processing Zones that employ more than 66,000 people.
