As per report by Ethiopian Ministry of Trade & Industry (MTI) and the Industrial Parks Corporation (IPC), Ethiopia continues to miss export targets for textiles due to a shortage of raw materials – including cotton – hampering output. Ethiopia’s export performance was $135 million less than the previous year for the same period. The export target for the past six months was U$1.21bn – well below the US$1.96 billion target set.
The IPC presented a performance audit report for the period 2015-18. According to the evaluation in 2015-16, exports of products originating at the Bole Lemi industrial park – a significant garment hub on which the government had pinned high hopes – was about $16.9 million. The original plan was to export products worth $130 million from the park, which offers an indication of the extent to which targets are being missed.
Similarly, for the fiscal year of 2016-17 export from the Bole Lemi Park was expected to be $40 million while actual export was $23.8 million. For 2016-17 exports from Hawassa Industrial Park – another major textile hub was $1.4 million against a planned performance of $50 million.
Ethiopia has pinned huge hopes on its textile and apparel export sectors and created a number of major industrial parks to attract inward investors. However, the rate of progress so far is far slower than had been anticipated.