Messe Frankfurt to lend helping hand

THE local clothing and textile industry is set to take the international stage following the acquisition of Source Africa and ATF trade shows by global giant Messe Frankfurt SA.

The acquisition was announced in Cape Town on Friday.

Source Africa and ATF, Africa’s largest local and international textile, apparel and footwear shows, have been organised by LTE.

Messe Frankfurt is the third largest trade fair company in the world with operations in more than 50 countries and is the world leader in textile fairs, organising more than 134 trade fairs around the world with over 90 000 exhibitors and about 3.5 million visitors.

LTE has organised shows in the local clothing, textile, footwear and leather sectors for more than 25 years while Source Africa has since its inception in 2013 become a landmark trade event in Africa.

William Scalco, a member at LTE, said the primary reason for Source Africa was to promote African-made apparel, textiles and footwear and to encourage interaction between international and regional buyers, manufacturers and suppliers.

Scalco said the event aimed to boost investment into the region and ensure sustainable job creation within the sector.

He added that the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa) until 2025, significantly enhanced market access to the US for qualifying sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries.

“While many countries are taking advantage of the act, there are many that are still not realising its true potential. It is encouraging to note that South Africa has just signed the EAC-COMESA-SADC tripartite agreement.”

Scalco said the agreement would offer the advantage of reduced tariffs on goods traded between tripartite countries and create new opportunities for intra-regional trade.

He said a report from McKinsey and Company, “Africa is on the Move”, identifies a number of countries in Africa as key destinations for apparel, textiles and footwear.

Such countries include South Africa, Mauritius, Madagascar, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Egypt.

“We firmly believe that Africa is ideally placed to take full advantage of these opportunities,” said Scalco.

Abisha Tembo, chief director of the DTI, said the show’s partnership with Messe Frankfurt, an international organisation, would make it easier for the department to get into international exhibitions for South Africa.

“It means that having Messe Frankfurt here, we can talk to them and then they can assist us to make sure we have good space internationally.

“We have had situations where we can manufacture cheaper than other countries and yet they were flooding our market.

“We still have a challenge with illegal imports which we are working on.

“With Messe Frankfurt being part and parcel of what is happening right now it makes it easier so that it can leverage space which we did not have before”.