Textile sector reaches breaking point

From 13 firms exporting under the AGOA provisions prior to the global recession, the number dropped to just one, Carapparel Botswana, which last year gave up and relocated to Lesotho.

Lesotho is a top textile exporter under AGOA, shipping off $290.4 million to the US last year.  Local exports, by comparison, were measured at $993,000, a 75% drop from 2016 and the continuation of a slide over the years from a peak of $30 million in 2005 (P289.2 million).