Textiles & Fabric Manufacturing

Textiles & Fabric Manufacturing

Textile fiber is one of the primary constituents in today’s’ world. Textile & fabric manufacturing is the exchange of fiber into yarn then yarn into fabric. It is then dyed or published before it is fabricated into clothes. The most natural fibers used to make clothes are; cotton, wool, and silk that produces the most elegant outfits. The primary purpose of textile manufacturing is changing the natural fiber into valuable products that include fabric, apparels, and home textiles through the consumption of exceptional finishing effects

The Kenyan market today has upgraded the textile industry into being competitive regionally and globally through undertaking demand-driven textile technology research, development, and innovation. The Kenyan market has also been able to attract an ample figure of external buyers where the statistics can grow much when we increase our competitiveness and diversify our markets.

The textile and fabric manufacturing industry has been recognized as a precedent sector by the Kenyan Government. Its eminence in the manufacturing column under the Big 4 Agenda and the Kenya Industrial Transformation Program is a display of its indulgent spot in the government’s thought processes. It has created a lot of job creations and opportunities within a short period. The textile and fabric manufacturing industry has brought vast prospects in cotton farming, textile mills, and the apparel/fashion industry.

Structures of textile & manufacturing in Kenya

In Kenya, this industry is diverse hence it has been divided into four parts, namely;

• Cotton growing and ginning – Cotton growing is mainly grown by small-scale farmers in marginal and arid areas; it is considered by a low average yield rate and poor cotton fiber quality.
• Yarn and thread production – it encompasses processes involved in altering the fiber into yarn. It was rooted in natural fibers obtained from natural plants or animal sources. They are then produced with impurities that were previously removed from the yarn.
• Fabric manufacture – it comprises of two types, the woven fabric produces the basic weaves like the plain, twill, and satin, While the knitted fabric that has characteristics of accommodating the body contour. Examples are sportswear, casual wear, and undergarments.
• Apparel manufacture –they are mainly design and manufacturing of a combined art and technology.

Various Stakeholders and value Chain in the Textile & Fabric manufacturing in Kenya.

Yarn spinning:

The yarn turning organizations include 140,000 shafts, a 40-50 percent right now being used. There are unusual separate yarn spinning plants that collect cotton yarns, blended yarn, just as polyester, acrylic, and sewing strings. Yarn production is traded in Kenya and exported to Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Nigeria. Around 30 percent of yarn mills are active.

Knitting and binding:

There are some separated factories, which shield the total creation esteem anchor from turning to weaving, coloring, and wrapping up. This factory is worried about sewing and four to weaving. Unbiased sewing and weaving organizations import yarns from India, Indonesia, China, and Taiwan yet, besides, use 80-90 percent of inside threads. The 15 mills that are in the weaving, knitting, and finishing business see a capacity operation of 40-50 percent.

Dyeing and finishing:

There aren’t standalone dyeing and finishing plants; this part of the manufacture value chain is exceptionally cohesive with textile mills.

Design and sewing:

This section entails non-EPZ firms (small/micro as excellent as medium and large apparel companies) and firms inside the EPZs, which are distributed into foreign investment firms, attachment producers, and local micro-firms located in the Export Business Accelerator (EBA). These firms effort at 100 percent capacity use, and around 93 percent of their fabric stock are imported from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, and Pakistan; this frills, machinery, and spare parts oppressed in apparel production.

Markets:

A 100 percent of EPZ output gets traded, typically to the U.S. around 15 companies outside the EPZ export worldwide. The rest is supplied in the local market with products for local hotels, conference materials, home décor, and tourism. The local market is also provided by finished products from the second-hand market and trafficked goods

Cross-cutting services:

The segment is under the patronages of the Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development, which sets its calculated path. There are various apex associations such as the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) and Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), as well as industry-specific associations such as the Cotton Growers Association, and Association of Fashion Designers, Handloom Weavers Marketing

List of best textile manufacturers in Kenya

1. Spin knit limited
2. Rivatex East Africa limited

• Thika Cloths mills

1. Sunflag textiles & Knitwear mills.
2. Spinners & spinner’s Ltd.
3. Alliance Garment Industries.

• KEMA East Africa Limited.
• Supra Textile ltd.

1. They are specialized Towel manufacturers Ltd.
2. Oriental mills ltd.
3. Zig-zag furnishings

• Riera- Tex ltd.

Pros and cons of textile & fabric manufacturing in Kenya

Pros

• It offers maximum employment after agriculture
• The textile industry aids one of the elementary needs of humans.
• It has boosted the Kenyan Economy in the selling of textiles and fabric

Cons

• In Kenya, it has become one of the highly competitive industry.

• The danger to the small handloom and heritage cultural arts like hand block printing, hand embroidery.
• Water consumption and water pollution allied with the wet dispensation.
• Air contamination.
• Chemical hazards.
• Cotton dust causes breathing issues.
• High noise levels.
• Abuse of human resources. Wages acquiescence is a concern.
• Lack of safety measures to handle threats of working practices.