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TESCO PLC, a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer, is negotiating to import footwear from four Ethiopian leather factories, according to the Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute (LIDI).

Tikur Abay, Peacock, Anbessa and Ramsey are the four factories that the company is negotiating with to export their footwear products, LIDI Corporate Communication Director, Berhanu Serjebo, told Walta Information Center.

The Bahir Dar Textile Factory is undergoing a 500 million birr renovation which is expected to enable it to produce three times as much as it currently does and make it competitive in international market, Abay Melaku, general manager of the factory, said.

70 Textile machinery and accessory manufacturers from German paid visit to Ethiopia for four days.

Four apparel and textile producers in Ethiopia are to wrap a 10 million US dollar deal with a group of US buyers in the next few weeks according to a senior representative of USAID Compete.

The Ethiopian textile companies involved in the deal are AYKA Addis, Addis Garment, Maa Garment and Kombolcha Textile and Calvin Kline is expected to be one of the US companies involved.

USAID Compete, is a USAID initiative which organizes Origin Africa, a yearly textile and apparel trade show in Africa. The Origin Africa event, which took place in Ethiopia for the first time this year, so 60 exhibitors representing many from the Ethiopian textile sector and about 26 buyers from the US and some from Europe.

Ethiopia earned over 8.2 million dollars from the export of garments and textile products this year, the Textile Industry Development Institute announced.

Compared with the income earned last year, this year’s earning has increased by 164.5 percent. The institute said in a press statement over the weekend that the amount of revenue the country earned in May this year exceeded that of the same period last year by 5.1 million dollars.

By May 2009, the country had earned 3.1 million dollars from the export of textile products for the 2008/09 fiscal year. Garments, textiles, yarn and fabric products earned about 59.8 percent, 19.8 percent, 19.3 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.

Those which earned the highest income in the textile and garment industry include Ayka Addis Textile & Investment, MAA Garment Factory, Kombolcha Textile and Adama Yarn Factory. Value-added apparel accounted for 49.3 percent among the exported items of the general textile products this year.  

Source: Fortune, ENA