Ethiopia opens up to Italian textile machineries

State Minister of Trade and Industry, Teka Grebeyesus, accompanied by the Ambassador of Italy to Ethiopia, Arturo Luzzi, visited the Italian stand at ITME Africa, held in Addis Ababa from 14 to 16 of February 2020, and met the representatives of the Italian textile machinery companies. Thanks to its textile vocation and to government programs supporting the growth and strengthening of the textile sector, Ethiopia represents the most important market in Sub Saharian Africa for the Italian textile industry.
ITME featured a delegation of 22 Italian textile machinery manufacturers at the Italian pavilion, organized by ICE-Agency and ACIMIT (Association of Italian Manufacturers of Machinery for the Textile Industry).
ACIMIT represents an industrial sector comprising around 300 manufacturers (employing close to 12,000 people) and producing machinery for an overall value of about 2.6 billion euros, with exports amounting to 86% of total sales. Creativity, sustainable technology, reliability and quality are the characteristics that have made Italy a global leader in the manufacturing of textile machinery.
ACIMIT President Alex Zucchi, extremely confident in the Ethiopian market, stated that Italian export has grown significantly over the past five years (on average of 17% per year), although their overall value remains quite modest (2.8 million euros in 2018). Indeed, over the first seven months of 2019, the Italian exports of the textile machineries reached a value of 3.3 million euros. In terms of sales of textile machineries, spinning machines (90% of the total exports towards Ethiopia), followed by accessories (6%) and finishing machines (4%), are the most requested by the Ethiopian market.