Looming Difficulties

The Economist: Looming Difficulties

Can Africa's clothing industry survive Asian competition?

AT THE Shinning Century factory in Maseru, the capital of Africa's tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho, an army of 1,500 workers, most of them women, labour over sewing machines and large piles of fabric. They make T-shirts and fleeces to be sold in American shops such as Gap and Old Navy. Lesotho, entirely surrounded by South Africa, also makes jeans for brands such as Levi Strauss.

Textiles is the only industry to speak of in this impoverished country of 1.8m people. It employs over 45,000 of them. Lesotho used to live off providing labour for South African mines; now it is Africa's biggest exporter of garments to America. It sent America $385m of clothes last year. Like Mauritius, Madagascar, Kenya and other African countries, Lesotho sees clothing as the way to develop, diversify and create jobs. But can sub-Saharan Africa's garment trade survive competition from Asia? …