Uganda’s cotton textile sector
May 25th, 2018We offer a piece looking at attempts to revive Uganda’s textile sector. Cotton is Uganda’s third largest export crop after coffee and tea. But 90 per cent of this cotton is exported in form of lint as most of the government run textile industries collapsed in the past.
Through its national textile policy, the government hopes it can help the country earn more from its cotton, through value addition.
One way it is doing this is by attracting foreign investment into the textile industry. In the past few years for example, an investor from Turkey has taken over one of the former large textile industries and has started exporting T-shirts, mostly to European markets.
The story would look at the progress so far that Uganda is making in reviving its textile industry– by attracting foreign investors into the market, and how that will also mean more money for the country’s cotton farmers. What more does it need to do to create a textile, clothing and cotton supply chain in Uganda? We’d talk to the industry and consultants.