Zimbabwe has launched a cotton-to-clothing export strategy.It's aimed at boosting productivity and helping generate much-needed foreign currency for the country.Given the abundance of quality natural fiber cotton as well as highly skilled manpower, Zimbabwe hopes to position itself as a global competitor.

The cotton-to-clothing sector extends from smallholder farming, which contributes to the livelihoods of more than one million Zimbabweans, to capital-intensive sub-sectors such as spinning and textiles that have played an integral role in the country’s industrialization and in the clothing industry.

The sector also has important foodsecurity implications – cotton by-products can be utilized as animal feed, while cottonseed oil is used for human consumption.

More than 100 stakeholders from the cotton-to-clothing sector, including representatives of the public sector, rural communities, small and medium-sized enterprises and civil society, are involved in defining a series of market-led development priorities to support the strategy.

Zimbabwe’s textile and clothing sector consists of three components: production and ginning of cotton, transformation of lint into yarn and fabric, and conversion of fabric and yarn into garments.

The sector has been affected by an influx  of cheap products from the Far East. Production costs are high and so it can’t compete with imported goods.  The industry should improve on capacity and get an advantage of economies of scale so it can produce more goods to cover its cost and so reduce its prices to compete with imports.

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