Among the country’s foreign currency sources, the textile and apparel industry is expected to generate one billion USD by the end of GTP-II. Hence, the Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute (ETIDI) has the responsibility in discharging nation’s development mission by ensuring the sector’s sustainable development through capacity building, knowledge transfer and innovative approaches.
In order to intensify the journey to industrialization, the government has undertaken a range of various activities in the manufacturing sector, like facilitating working atmospheres and transforming micro and small enterprises into medium ones and creating market chains. Customer satisfaction has been considered to be more dependable upon the present reality of Ethiopian textile and apparel industry. The textile market has become highly competitive. The final product cost is determined by the various components of entire supply chain.
On a recent Process Optimization in Textile Processing Seminar, from the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) of Mumbai Prof. Rv Adivarekar said that textile sector is probably the world’s largest industry. The customer demands consistent quality of the product. Determining targets for maintaining and achieving best possible outcome at each stage of textile processing ultimately helps ensuring delivery of product with optimum performance.
ICT Resident Staff and Team Leader at ETIDI Dr. Kedar Kulkami said that optimization of concentration of auxiliaries and basic chemicals is used for processing. The concentration of various basic chemicals as well as auxiliaries used in actual process is not standardized. The testing of these is not done in laboratory and the actual concentration used in the process is not optimized accordingly.
“The effect of variation in quality of chemicals should be minimized by optimizing their concentration is actual recipe. Our intervention has been helpful in overcoming some of their problems and thus trouble shooting was exercised.” he added.
Dr. Ashook Athalye from G.M. Technical Service, Atui Ltd, Gujarat, India in his presentation entitled “Role of compatibility in product optimization” said that the harmoniousness co-existence and synergistic effect is achieved by determining and ensuring the use of compatibly products and processes. It involves adequate use of substrates and their blend proportions, operating machine designs and their installations, processing sequence, colorant usage and combinations, chemical compositions and stability. Ultimately, the goal is to achieve best possible results and to deliver superior textile and material to the user, he added.
The true measure of the successful performance of the textile processing is the percentage of right first time as well as right every time production and the best levels can be consistently obtained by significantly optimizing the process of operations. The process of wide variety of fibers necessitates adequate dyestuff’s selection from diverse classes of colorants , he said.
The textile and apparel sub-sector is among the priority sub-sectors identified by the government in transforming the country’s traditional agricultural based economy to industrialization. It has been one of Ethiopia’s traditional domestic business mainly relied on traditional based and home grown old age spinning drop wheel and hand loom up to the modern textile and garment integrated mill was established in 1939 in Dire Dawa by the name of Dire Dawa Textile Factory.
Currently, Ethiopian textiles and apparel industry encompasses spinning, weaving, finishing of textiles, manufacture of cordage, rope, twine, netting, knitting mills, and manufacturing of wearing apparel. The firms in the industry produce products such as cotton and woolen fabrics, nylon fabrics, acrylic and cotton yarn, blanket, bed sheet, shirts, carpets, gunny bags, wearing apparels and sewing thread.
Moreover, the ongoing second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) of Ethiopia, and its industrial development strategy are all centered agricultural-based, manufacturing sector-driven and export-led development. The GTP pursued the growth through the export-driven industrialization strategy focusing on labour and capital intensive manufacturing industries, export-oriented and import substituting industries.
The key strategic directions are small and medium scale industrial development; and large scale industries with special emphasis all geared to poverty alienation and development. The manufacturing industries that have given due attention are agro- processing industries, textile and clothing, food and beverage industries, tannery and leather goods, pharmaceutical industries, chemicals and chemical products industries, paper and paper products, plastic industries, building materials, glass and glass products, metal and metal engineering among others.