The Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Zimbabwe, is set to launch Zimbabwe’s Cotton-to-Clothing (C2C) export strategy at the 5th Clothing Indaba in Bulawayo, with support from the International Trade Centre (ITC) and funding from the European Union under the EU-Africa Partnership on Cotton, and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), the Zimbabwe Mail reported.
The European Union has planned to grant about €11 million for implementing the strategy. Under the C2C Strategy, the European Development Fund has a pool of resources available to African countries.
The strategy is planned to revive the Zimbabwe’s cotton and textile industry.
ITC said that more than 100 stakeholders from the C2C sector, including representatives from the public sector, rural communities, small and medium-sized enterprises, and civil society, have defined a series of market-led development priorities for the strategy.
The plan is a set of ambitious targets, which include increasing the cotton yields up to 1,200 kilograms per hectare that will benefit about 2,50,000 smallholders.
With the strategy, Zimbabwe plans to increase the production of cotton lint up to 450,000 tons every year and increase the exports of garments and textiles up to US$ 7.5 million by 2019.
Zimbabwe will also receive €4.8 million from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and another €1 million allocation as part of the regional economic integration efforts to support Zimbabwe.
The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mike Bimha, ITC’s deputy director, Dorothy Tembo, the secretary general of Comesa, Sindiso Ngwenya, will oversee the implementation of the strategy.
Zimbabwe also held a second consultative workshop on the C2C strategy. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce, permanent secretary, Abigail Shonhiwa said the workshop on C2C strategy development would help the strategy integrate into the existing development policies in Zimbabwe.
More than 1 million Zimbabweans, including farmers, ginner, and textile producers – as well as their families – depend on cotton for their livelihoods. (GK)
