ABSTRACT
The expansion of the textile and clothing industries is inextricably linked to the
socioeconomic advancement of all nations in the world that are struggling to come out of
poverty and backwardness. The fact that the textile and clothing industries have
successfully transitioned from an agricultural to a manufacturing-based economy justifies
the continued use of this strategy by all emerging nations worldwide. From Europe to
North America, then to Asia, South America, and other nations on other continents,
the textile and clothing sector has been successfully used for socio-economic
transformation. In every country it traversed, the textile and clothing guaranteed
socioeconomic progress. Ethiopia started the implementation of agricultural development
led industrialization (ADLI) plan in 1995 after realizing the significance of textile and
clothing for its socioeconomic development. Unfortunately, despite the potential the
country has for the development of the textile and apparel industries, the plan has not been
implemented effectively, and as a result, the growth of the industry and the economic and
social outcomes from the sector have not been as substantial. Thus, the Ethiopian textile
and garment clothing sector industries are facing multiple challenges such as backward
linkage, delivery and demand side linkage, employee-related problems, poor utilities and
facilities, and weak control and coordination. The production and trade of textiles and
clothing is the only industrial sector that contributes to industrial economic development
for the least developing nations. Therefore, policy revision and problem-solving are
essential to maintain this sector’s industrial development in Ethiopia in order to realize a
large industrial economy in the country.
Keywords: Textile; Clothing; Socioeconomic; Manufacturing and Challenges.
INTRODUCTION
The so-called “industrial revolution” started in England in the middle of the
1700s. Science and capital were for the first time combined by the means of the
industrial revolution to address production-related issues (Dickerson, 1995). Prior
to 1750, the majority of English households lived on farms or in small villages,
and poverty was widespread in England at the time, just like it is now in Ethiopia.
In England, the Industrial Revolution led to the establishment of the first textile
factories and mills, which gave rise to a factory system. In the early to middle
decades of the 19th century, New England underwent a major social
transformation that transformed it from a rural, agrarian society to an urban,
industrial society, drawing young men and women to the textile factories.
Ethiopia needs this type of socioeconomic development badly since around 80%
of its people are involved in substandard small-scale farming.
The first clothing factory was built in Philadelphia, United States of America
(USA), to create uniforms for the War of 1812, following the development
pattern of the textile factories in England (Kidwell and Christman, 1974). The
key characteristics of the apparel sector are its labor-intensive, ease of entry with
little start-up investment and technical know-how, minimal worker training, and
ease of mastery of the industry’s manufacturing tools. The growth of the textile
and garment industries in England and the USA led to the first cross-border
migration of labor and capital. Over 62 million individuals, largely from Europe,
traveled between 1820 and 1930, with roughly 35% settling in the United States.
Ethiopia has been involved in this area of industry since 1995 with its
Agricultural Development Led Industrialization (ADLI) program, having learned
the significance of textile and clothing manufacturing and commerce from
foreign experience. To shift Ethiopia’s economy from one that was centered on
agriculture to one that was manufacturing-based, this strategy prioritized the
production and marketing of textiles and clothing. As a result, this review’s
discussion of the relevance of global textile and apparel production and trade in
Ethiopia’s context is presented succinctly.
THE GLOBAL SCENARIO FOR TEXTILE AND CLOTHING MANUFACTURING
Due to its low fixed costs and concentration on labor-intensive manufacturing,
the production of textiles and clothing serves as a foundation for national growth
and is frequently the traditional starting industry for nations engaged in exportoriented industrialization (Gereffi, 1999; Adhikari and Weeratunge, 2006).
Because most countries manufacture for the global market, this is one of the most
international sectors. By the 1960s, rising imports from low-wage developing
nations had an influence on both the textile and clothing sectors in the majority of
developed nations.
Textile and clothing manufacturing as sensitive and complex industrial
sector
Particularly responsible for the decline in the production of industrialized nations
as a share of global manufacturing was Japan, the then-developing country with
expanded production capacity. During the 1920s through the 1950s, Japan’s
economic expansion followed the earlier trend in the USA and certain European
nations by mainly depending on the textile and clothing industries to drive the
industrialization process. Japan became the world’s top exporter of cotton textile
goods in 1933 (Dickerson, 1995). Other less developed countries started to
produce and export cotton goods after Japan. Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea,
India, China, and Pakistan soon joined Japan in exporting increasing volumes to
the industrialized nations (Figure 1). Several emerging nations and a few
countries in Eastern Europe started to model their economic development plans
after those of industrialized nations in the 1950s and 1960s. The industrialized
world has higher labor costs than developing nations, which reduces its
competitiveness and forces merchants to outsource portions of the production
process. Following the example of Japan and other industrialized nations, China
put a lot of focus on labor-intensive manufacturing as part of its 1979 economic
reform in an effort to expand exports.
The comparative advantage in manufacturing is lost as economies become
wealthier and salaries rise, and the emphasis instead switches to high-value-added
goods or other produced goods with lower labor intensity (Adhikari and
Weeratunge, 2006). Suppliers must be able to offer full package options that
expand their capabilities to other parts of the value chain, including design,
inventory management, and transportation of goods, and adopt the right
technologies to facilitate this transition in order to operate effectively in the
current textile and apparel global trading environment (Technopak, 2007). On the
other hand, the need for supply chain openness has grown in both the US and the
EU due to the rising consumer demand for greater social and environmental
standards. The leading companies want to learn more about their suppliers and
make sure they maintain the brand guidelines (Sauls, 2008)
The top international manufacturers and exporters of textiles and clothing
With ongoing growth of their positions in the sector, China, Bangladesh, India,
Vietnam, and Germany have been the main winners of the competition in textile
and clothing production and export to the worldwide market (Gereffi and
Frederick, 2010). China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and India are the top exporters of
traditional textiles and clothing worldwide, whereas Germany is the top exporter
of technical textiles. Since the early 1970s, the global clothing sector has been
growing quickly and employing tens of millions of people in some of the least
developed nations on the globe. Table 1 displays the annual export revenue and
employment generated in the main exporting nations. In terms of yarn, fabric,
dyeing, printing, finishing, and accessories, China completely meets its local
demand (Wazir Advisor, 2021). Moreover, China exports machineries for
spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, printing, finishing, and testing, as well as
equipment and sewing machines for clothing manufacture. China’s textile
industry has a production capacity that exceeds more than half of the whole world
market (Alam et al., 2020). One of the key sectors in India that significantly
contributes to the GDP of the country is the textile and garment sector (Giri and
Rai, 2013).
The industry sector provides around 14% of industrial production, 4% of GDP,
and 17% of India’s export revenue (Chandra, 2005; CUTS International, 2020).
Three decades ago, Bangladesh began participating in the global textile and
clothing export market without having enough backward links (Houkokusho,
2012). According to Masum and Inaba (2015), Bangladesh’s textile and clothing
industry generates 82% of the nation’s export revenue and contributes 23% of the
nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The government’s involvement in the manufacturing and trade of textiles and accessories
The challenges with backward linking that now plague Ethiopia’s textile and
apparel sector cause it to lag behind global competition. According to the
Vietnamese experience, the Ethiopian government must invest in the construction
of major cotton farming, complicated textile, and garment accessory
manufacturing industries in order to tackle this problem. Ethiopia has a great deal
of potential for growing cotton, but the likely locations are far away and lack
infrastructure, and private investors are not interested in such investments. To
close the growing gap in the production and trade of textiles and clothing, the
government must make such an investment. The nation will gain from such
government investment in the form of greater employment, increased export
revenue, and general socioeconomic growth along the whole value chain of
textile and clothing manufacturing and commerce
CONCLUSION
The textile and clothing industry is a dynamic sector for investigating less
expensive labor for global production. Due to the labor-intensive nature of the
textile and clothing manufacturing industries and the fact that labor represents the
majority of the industry’s production costs, this industry is typically relocated
from industrially developed countries to low-income developing countries. For
low-income nations aiming for industrial economic growth, the industry’s
movement pattern is favorable. The textile and apparel sector benefits lowincome developing nations in numerous ways, including: ease of entry into the
industry, employment opportunities due to the labor-intensive nature of the
sector, export earnings from manufacturing, growth of the industrial culture, and
capital accumulation for ongoing heavy industrial economic development. With
its agriculture development led industrialization strategic plan, Ethiopia, a lowincome nation, strategically joined the textile and clothing manufacturing and
trade industries in 1995; nevertheless, the sector has not yet considerably
increased its share of the world market. The failure to resolve issues confronting
the sector industry, such as backward linkage, delivery and demand side linkage,
employee related, utility and facility, and managing and coordination constraints
may be the root cause of the country’s poor performance in textile and clothing
production and trade. The issues that the sector industry is presently facing must
be resolved by careful planning and execution if the nation is to progress via the
manufacturing industry. Moreover, policymakers must update the strategy when
the nation strengthens its position in the global textile and apparel production and
trade market.
