Addis Abeba — The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) benefits Ethiopian garment and textile manufacturers even though the volume is low compared to other African countries, Ethiopian Textile and Garment Manufacturers Association (ETGAMA) disclosed.

East Africa is characterized by low productivity, high cost of production and extremely little market penetration to the global market. This is the main challenge it faces in claiming the AGOA market share, Ato Endalkachew Sime, Secretary General of ETGAMA told to The Daily Monitor at the first Eastern-Africa Textile and Apparel Stakeholders Capacity Building Workshop, held 18th-19th of November 2009 at Sheraton Addis.

These challenges, together with others, put the countries of the region at a disadvantage to make use of the opportunity. "We can simply see this effect through the contribution the region is making in AGOA, the EU market and other market access opportunities provided," he said.

The two days workshop was organized by TEGAMA, the African Countries and Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF) in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Competitiveness and Trade Expansion Program (COMPETE) under the theme of "Developing synergies to take advantage of trade opportunities within and outside the region".

According to Ato Endalkachew, last year the Ethiopian garment and textile manufacturers made over USD 18 million from the export of their products to the AGOA market.

The specific subjects the workshop covered include Merchandizing, Quality Assurance and Compliance with a purpose of building the capacity of the industry of the region through National Sectoral Associations.

Participants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, USA, South Africa, Mauritius, Madagascar, Zambia shared their experiences and discussed on the opportunities, challenges of each countries.

EFGAMA is a national sectoral association of the Ethiopian Textile and Garment Industry. Reestablished in 2003, ETGAMA represents the interest of its members in different forms. Member's capacity building, market linkage formation, information supply and advocating policy-related affairs are the main areas of its engagement.

In close cooperation with the Government and development partners, ETGAMA works on capacitating the individual member factories and networking them in view of improved bargaining power in the competitive market of the industry.