The Zimbabwe Textile Manufacturers’ Association (ZTMA) has embarked on a survey to assess the performance of the sector while mobilising funds to help expand the industry. ZTMA vice chairman Freedom Dube recently said his organisation was conducting site tours of companies across the country following the end of the annual shut down. The site tours of members will access who has re-opened after the annual shutdown and also establish what’s happening in their operations.

Dube says, due to operational constraints like stiff competition from imports, liquidity challenges and obsolete plant machinery, local textile firms closed 2015 operating at around 34 per cent capacity utilization. In terms of funding, textile companies need a combined $20 million working capital and capitalization.

Among a host of measures, players in the clothing and textile sector want the government to consider extending the rebate on textiles by another year to allow recovery. At its peak the clothing sector employed over 40,000 people compared to about 8,000 as of last year.

The country’s textile and clothing sub-sectors consist of three components namely: production and ginning of cotton, transformation of lint into yarn and fabric, and the conversion of fabric and yarn into garments.