Tanzanian home textiles firms gain insights on US market
Tanzanian textile companies received a boost to their efforts to export products to the U.S. after attending a half-day workshop hosted by the USAID Hub.
Fifteen Tanzanian design enterprises learned about U.S. market opportunities on January 15 in Dar es Salaam from Margaret Bishop, an expert in textile and apparel production and quality management.
Ms. Bishop provided the companies with technical insights on U.S. home textile market trends, buyer expectations and product/color trends. This information will inform the companies' design, production and marketing processes, helping them to improve their competitiveness and access the U.S. market.
“Moyo has been looking into export market for some time now. The workshop on U.S. trends for home textile market has been very beneficial,” said Ms. Ayesha Mawji, Director of Moyo Designs.
Ms. Bishop also held one-on-one meetings with exhibiting enterprises to give technical expertise on their product development. She declared four of the enterprises export-ready and gave the others advice on how they too could become export-ready.
"There should be more of these knowledge sharing events as most of us local artisans would like to export but are not sure of where to start,” said Ms. Rachel Kessi, Director of World of Weaving.
The Hub is the one-stop shop in the East African region for businesses and national governments seeking to take advantage of AGOA's duty-free access to the U.S. and increase their exports to the U.S. market. To date, Hub support in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda has directly contributed to AGOA exports valued at $415 million.
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