Cotton made in Africa - Textile markets in East Africa How to activate the textile market in East Africa? What can be done to increase the efficiency of value chains? These and other questions took center stage during a workshop in Nairobi last week. Ambassador Andreas Peschke opened the forum hosted by the Inter Region Economic Network (IREN) dedicated to the development of the cotton and textile market in East Africa. In his introductory remarks, Ambassador Peschke highlighted the role of the textile sector in Africa: We are all aware of the importance of cotton for many African countries. It is not only the basic source of income for almost 20 million smallholder farmers and their family members, but is also the basis for further added value in Africa. However, as a commodity cotton is exposed to changing world market prices. Subsidies by major cotton producing countries like the US, China and India keep the supply of cotton artificially high and pressure on cotton prices. The ones suffering most from such market distortion are African smallholder farmers. In this context, the Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) initiative was launched by the German entrepreneur Dr. Michael Otto in cooperation with the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2005. This initiative is the answer to 2 challenges. On the one side, consumers all over the world are becoming more and more interested in the conditions under which the products they buy are grown or fabricated. On the other side, it was essential to find alternative ways to increase the income and improve livelihoods of smallholder cotton farmers. Ambassador Peschke pointed out: “The German Government supports the Cotton Made in Africa Initiative by supporting the Aid by Trade Foundation based in Hamburg. This is a strategic alliance supporting projects in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and others, in order to create a transparent value chain and to increase demand for cotton made in Africa. However, East Africa is missing so far. I hope this can be changed. East Africa should be part of the value chain and the trademark “Cotton Made in Africa” and I am thankful to James Shikwati (Director of IREN) for moving forward this initiative.” cotton-made-in-africa/en/
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 09:46:34 +0000
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