Cotton Without Cloth: Asia's Textile Rise and Africa's Hollowing Out

Africa, like the U.S., once had vibrant textile industries. Beginning in the 1990s, Asian investment and export surges, particularly from China, India, and Southeast Asia, undercut Africa’s competitiveness. Backed by low-cost labor, heavy subsidies, and scale-driven efficiencies, Asian manufacturers flooded Western markets with cheap garments and fabrics.

Africa wasn’t able to compete on price, technology, or logistics. Nigeria’s textile industry fell from around 175 mills and 600,000 workers in the 1980s to fewer than 24 mills and under 30,000 workers by the 2010s. In the same period Kenya went from 52 textile mills to only 15 mills operating at less than 45% capacity. In Ghana, output plunged from about 130 million yards of fabric in the late 1970s to just 15 million yards by 2017. Following the initial collapse the textile firms remaining have experienced a "slow death" with Africa’s share of world textile exports falling from 2.9% in 2003 to 2.0% in 2022.

Where Africa’s Textile Industry Stands Today

Despite the erasure of much of its domestic base, the past two decades have seen pockets of resilience. Mauritius and Lesotho became export-driven hubs under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), while Kenya and Ethiopia positioned themselves as low-cost garment exporters, leveraging industrial parks and foreign investment, often from Asia.

By the early 2000s, Africa’s apparel exports to the U.S. under AGOA peaked at over $1.6 billion, led by Kenya, Lesotho, and Mauritius. Growth slowed after the end of global textile quotas in 2005, but over the past decade, production has stabilized. According to UN Comtrade, Africa’s apparel exports to the U.S. have hovered between $1-1.5 billion annually, representing less than 0.5% of total U.S. apparel imports. Kenya has emerged as the largest single beneficiary of AGOA’s apparel provisions, accounting for roughly 40% of Africa’s U.S. apparel exports. Ethiopia, despite political setbacks, invested heavily in Hawassa Industrial Park, managing to attract such brands as PVH and H&M.

Asia vs. Africa: The Textile Divide

The contrast with Asia is stark. In 2022, Vietnam exported $37.6 billion, Bangladesh $45 billion, and China dominated with over $300 billion in textiles and apparel. Sub-Saharan Africa managed under $4 billion combined, meaning Vietnam alone ships 25–30 times Africa’s total. Two to three decades ago the gap was narrower.

In the mid-1990s, Africa exported about $500-700 million in apparel to the U.S., while Vietnam was under $1 billion and Bangladesh around $2-3 billion. Since then, Asia’s apparel exports have grown 40-50 times, while Africa’s only 5-7 times.

Africa’s Cotton Remains Integral

While Africa lost much of its textile manufacturing base, cotton production never disappeared. West and Central Africa quadrupled output between the early 1980s and early 2000s, cementing the region as a leading raw cotton supplier. Africa currently produces around 5% of global production with the top producers being Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. It exports about $2.1 billion in raw cotton each year, with its share of global trade roughly double what it was in 1980. Almost all of this cotton is shipped abroad, mainly to Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam, where it is spun, woven, and stitched into finished garments. The paradox is clear: Africa grows the cotton but Asia captures the value.

A Window of Opportunity: New Tariffs and Regional Potential

Recent U.S. tariff measures under the Trump administration largely spared African textile exporters. This is in contrast to steeper penalties imposed on Asian powers such as China and Vietnam. The new tariff framework has created a relative advantage for burgeoning African textile hubs like Kenya, Lesotho, and Mauritius. Chatter among regional officials suggests Kenya is spearheading efforts to consolidate an East African textile bloc, pooling land, labor, and inputs across neighboring economies to compete at scale. A sign that a larger deal beyond only Kenya is in the works is that textile-export-dependent Lesotho only received a 15% tariff on its exports to America, instead of the 45% expected.

Africa has competed in the textile sector and can do so again. It has abundant cotton-growing potential and amply production to support a meaningful domestic textile sector, a large and relatively low-cost labor force, and established logistics corridors to U.S. and European markets. It’s also closer than Asia geographically and culturally. With tariffs squeezing Asia’s competitiveness and buyers under pressure to diversify beyond China, East Africa, supported by Mauritius and Lesotho, may be on the cusp of reclaiming part of the global apparel value chain it lost decades ago.