How we can rebuild our textile industry!

Business
1

The mitumba menace has decimated Africa’s textile industry. And killed many cotton farms…And the rise in mitumba will continue to grow as Africa, Kenya becomes more developed.

But is there a solution? Yes there’s is!

We can recycle the massive amounts of metric tons of clothes dumped in Kenya into clothes which we can sell right back to the West at a higher premium. And we can buy Kenya and Build Kenya.

I’ve been doing some research and it’s indeed possible to recycle these clothes. By either breaking apart the fibers in a chemical solvent or shredding the clothes in a machine.

The collected fibers can then be sold to textile firms in the country and turned into clothes, jackets, etc.

The chemical solvent extraction process is able to churn out higher quality cotton fibers(organic cotton) which means it can be sold at premium prices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRk5WQGLIWk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkIhA3W4IiU

2

Kenyans have very specific needs, when it comes to clothing. Tunataka Adidas juu chini, and not the basic clothing.
We have evolved fashion wise.

3

This is great. I want a piece of the recycling pie.

4

It is not that easy. In America and Canada, retailers have a lot of Made in Kenya clothings but not here in Kenya. Why? Because of the AGOA pact where mtumba clothes is part of the deal. Kenya produces high quality clothes at the EPZ.

5

Adidas is just a brand.

And we can lure them to Kenya. And we manufacture there branded clothes using recycled cotton and polyester. Which they’d sell back to the European who threw it away.

6

AGOA says nothing about recycling and us reselling them mitumba fibers right back to them.

China was treated the same as a manufacturing hub for cheap products. They flipped the script and now manufacture all types of high quality goods.

We can do the same and take advantage of those mitumba that is dumped here.

7

Milling or weaving in this industry does not add too much value, value is in tailoring and branding.

8

I passed by the cotton mills yesterday and saw it has been converted to a ware house. KBL also used to be a ware house for Coca cola but yesterday I saw it is undergoing renovations and the coca cola containers and crates that were outside its premises have been moved.

9

If this were possible, it would have been done decades ago. The problem is, the cost of recycled fibers matches that of virgin fibers, with the supply of the latter being more reliable than the former.

10

all import substitution industries in kenya either died or are on the throes, the new export oriented industry that emerged after liberalization of textile trade has a better chance of survival.

11

Decades people weren’t facing the conditions happening today.

I read somewhere in Daily Nation that the government wants to introduce GMO cotton because the cotton we grow today isn’t yielding enough because of different climatic conditions.

Reconstituting recycled cotton is an industry Kenya should explore…

12

Let’s continue buying from woriah and muhindi shops. We are a consumer race.