It was a turbulent year 2014 for Asia’s textile industry: soaring labor wages in China, violent workers’ protests in Cambodia and collapsing factories in Bangladesh.

China has already lost its appeal as a cheap garment producing country and foreign apparel retailers have turned to factories in Bangladesh and Cambodia in recent years. But workers in these cheap garment producing countries are also increasingly agitating for better pay.

Many textile retailers already have begun sourcing clothes from Ethiopia. Foreign textile investors benefit from an abundance of cheap labor, cheap energy and locally produced cotton. In neighboring Kenya, the textile industry is also expanding. The government is trying there to lure manufacturers with generous incentives.

East African countries have the potential to become a serious alternative to East Asia in terms of textile manufacturing. Apart from lower labor costs, it is quicker and cheaper to ship textile products from Africa to the main markets in Europe and the US, rather than from more distant countries in the Far East.

African countries also have duty-free access to the US textile market under a special trade agreement signed in 2000. And by utilising and expanding native cotton production, producers can avoid expensive imports by using local materials.