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| Africa Sourcing & Fashion Week in Addis Abeba Africa's main trade show for the cotton, textile, apparel, home and technology industry enters the next level: from 3 to 6 October 2017, the third edition of Africa Sourcing & Fashion Week in Addis Ababa welcomes international providers and buyers. For the first time the fair cooperates with Messe Frankfurt. As part of the partnership, the three new trade fair brands Texworld Addis Abeba, Apparel Sourcing Addis Abeba and Texprocess Addis Abeba will be launched within the Africa Sourcing & Fashion Week. The event trio in Addis Abeba's Millennium Hall will present over 250 international exhibitors from 25 countries. The largest exhibiting nations coming to Ethiopia include Turkey, the United Arabic Emirates, Tansania, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Italy and Germany. Apparel fabrics, leather goods, fashion and fashionable accessories will be the main items on display. The following companies have already confirmed their participation: Almeda Textile, Atraco, Baykar Tekstil, Else Textile, Indochina Textile, Maa Garment, MNS, Özkan Textile, Tür Ip Tekstil, Velocity and YKK. Home and household textile providers will also be presented, such as Sammi Deluxe Leather, Samra Leather, Unido – Lomi Leather and Village Industries. Machine manufacturers for garment production, CAD/CAM systems, printers, inks and accessories will have a strong presence, too. Brother Industries, FK Group and Groz-Beckert have already confirmed their participation as well as Has Group Turkey, IMA Spa, Jack, Juki Corporation, Maya, Pegasus Sewing Machines, Silver Star, V.B. Mac and Veit. Parallel to the fair there will be a comprehensive programme, including a fashion show, lecture series, a trend area and a matchmaking platform. Fashion is big business in Africa The combined apparel and footwear market in Sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to be worth $31bn, according to data from Euromonitor International. The fashion industry is expected to double in the next 10 years, generating up to $5tr annually. Every year, in the US alone $284bn are spent on fashion retail, through the purchase of 19 billion garments. This presents a tremendous opportunity for Africa at various levels of the value chain: From design to production to marketing, the fashion industry is a profitable business. It is important to look at these industries through a value-chain approach to see the contribution that a 'made-in-Africa' brand can make to African economies. "Due to increased wages within Asia, cheap labour in Africa as well as the AGOA agreement between Africa and the USA, the African continent is becoming ever more important for textile production. Lesotho, South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya and Ethiopia are playing a leading role in this", says Skander Negasi, Managing Director of Trade and Fairs East Africa, the organiser of Africa Sourcing & Fashion Week. Africa-inspired designs are now regularly shown on the catwalks in fashion shows in Paris, London and Milan. Michelle Obama, the former first lady of the US, wears African-influenced clothing from Nigerian designer Duro Olowu. Messe Frankfurt: partnership with Africa Sourcing & Fashion Week Following Europe, Asia and America, Messe Frankfurt is expanding its textile event portfolio to encompass Africa. From this year onwards, Messe Frankfurt will enter into a partnership with Africa Sourcing & Fashion Week in Ethiopia. Its involvement in East Africa marks Messe Frankfurt's first foray into the new territory of the African textile industry. "For us, this partnership marks the start of our textile trade fair activities on an exceptionally interesting continent that is becoming more and more important for the textile industry and whose players will come increasingly to prominence", says Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies at Messe Frankfurt. "We look forward to our collaboration as part of the Africa Sourcing & Fashion Week and are excited about the upcoming event". write your comments about the article :: © 2017 Exhibition News :: home page |