Zambia holds expo to unlock textile sector potential

Zambia's premier Leather Expo being held in Lusaka, the country's capital, will result in the unlocking of the country's textile sector, organizers said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Zambia's Vice-President Inonge Wina said the government was eager to support the growth of non-traditional exports such as leather and textile products.

The expo, which runs from Dec 12 to 16 at the Mulungushi International Conference Center, is being attended by players in the leather and textile sectors from across the country.

"The expo dubbed, 'Enhancing Competitiveness of the Leather and Textile Sectors through Value Addition' is aimed at building trade capacity of small and medium enterprises in the leather and textile industries in order to increase production, improve product recognition and increase sales," Godfrida Chana, public relations officer at the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry said in a statement.

She added that unlocking the sector would be a major force in the development efforts of the government as it was one of the key sectors within the national industrialization and job creation strategy.

She however expressed concern that despite the potential the sector has, it has continued to face a number of challenges such as inadequate institutional support for products development and value addition, lack of technical skills to produce quality products and that enterprises were lacking in market information and on how to penetrate new markets.

Meanwhile, the Zambian vice-president said the government was eager to support non-traditional exports by encouraging value addition.

She said the government has identified the leather and textile as one area to boost export products and has since urged enterprises to ensure they produced quality products.

She said dependence on traditional exports such as copper has been putting Zambia in awkward situations each time prices on the international market tumbled.

According to figures, the leather and textile sector earned 13.08 million U.S. dollars in 2015, a drop of 76.32 percent compared to the previous year when it earned 55.2 million dollars.

On the other hand, the sector made a marginal contribution of 0.7 percent to the total non-traditional export earnings in 2015.

The expo, which has attracted about 60 small and medium enterprises, has been organized in collaboration with the European Union (EU) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Endit