Textile Industry Achieves Above Planned Export Earnings in Past Five Months

The textile and apparel industry in Ethiopia has achieved above the planned earnings from export in the past five months, according to the Ministry of Industry.

During his visit to textile and leather industries located in Mojo and Adama towns of Oromia Regional State, Industry Minister Melaku Alebel said the ministry that planned to earn 223 million USD for this Ethiopian budget year has achieved 120 percent of the target over the past five months.

“We planned to generate 223 million USD from textile export for this year and performed 120 percent of target during the five months of the budget year,” Melaku said, stating that 80 of the over 400 textile and apparel industries in the country have exported textile products.

The minister has expressed his ministry’s commitment to resolve challenges being raised by textile and leather industries, including the availability of foreign currency, input raw materials and spare parts.

The ministry will work to address the challenges of foreign currency exchange in collaboration with the National Bank of Ethiopia, he assured. “We will work with the public and private sectors to develop a system to improve the supply of raw materials and spare parts.”

According to him, 19 of the about 27 medium and large leather industries produce better products and the ministry has planned to earn 90 million USD from the leather industry export this year.

“One of the many resources we have as a country is our skin resources. We have to increase the amount of foreign currency earnings and domestic income being generated from this resources. Given the current situation in our country increasing industrial production and productivity is a priority.”

The performance of the leather industries in the past five months is over 73 percent, he added.

The achievement registered indicates the fact that the sector has immense opportunity to support the overall economy of the country with improved system of works, he stated.

Source: Ethiopia News Agency