Rank: Member Joined: 1/27/2012 Posts: 851 Location: Nairobi
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murchr wrote:mkeiy wrote:murchr wrote:Swenani wrote:murchr wrote:[quote=Swenani][quote=murchr][quote=Swenani][quote=murchr]
On the flip side,a country that struggles to feed itself, is it not wiser to grow food crops, rather than cotton?
Do we import Sugar? Rice? Maize? Eggs? Yes for the same reason, not exploiting our potential
Do we have mitumba sugar? rice? maize? egg? Yes In most cases we import lower grade food
Why do we import? Because its easier, no much investment is needed, easy money
Why are the imports cheaper? Because the countries of origin have explored the economies of scale
How much cotton do we need to dress Kenya? 90,000 tons on average per year? Why did you give the figure? Why should you just dress Kenya?
How many people will the textiles industry employ? 10s of thousands from farmers to retailers plus other industries that may spring up from the bi products
How much does an EPZ employee earn now? Meager. the muhindi has to factor in the costs of importing everything from machinery to fabric to thread. You should not directly compare the mtumba seller to the EPZ worker, one is a retailer the other is a tailor. A good comparison would be the Muhindi seller exploiting AGOA and the mtumba seller.
How much does a mtumba retailer earn now? Much more considering the clothes he purchases are mostly donations, the expenses are in shipping and handling
Let's not bite every bait thrown our way, textile industry is NOT a strategic sector and push to kill mtumba AS THINGS STAND, will be detrimental.
The textile industry is as important as the food industry. Every successful country feeds and clothes its self since everyone has to eat and dress up.
@ Murchr. Please respond to issues raised and not the issues you would wish were raised. Respond to the above in red, one by one. DONE Secondly, we are not in a shouting competition here, if it's doable, explain how. Revive KICOMI, RIVATEX the latter WSR is busy on the works in reviving it, the former....some case is in court over a land sale. I think some Kisumu big wig says they are the owners
If i explain why/how difficult is is to do, counter with how simple it will be. That way we all learn . It is not difficult. All barriers are created in the mindDon't starting talking of who-doesn't-understand-what here. It's cheap and disgusting. Looking forward; A. Would you kindly lemme know how much as a farmer i would get from 1Kg of my cotton produce?  Cotton prices are determined in the world market just like coffee, tea and other horticultural markets. With technology production cost reductions are possible. Just the way Kari can research and come up with a species of a grain/seed/plant that is conducive for certain environments etc B. Which regions will grow this cotton? [As a small boy we had coffee and cotton farms, now all i see is "semi arid". Actually it is worse than semi, its arid itself] Yes that "semi arid" you see is where cotton was grown. Cotton was historically grown in Nyanza, Ukambani parts of Coast and North Eastern.C. Coffee sells for about 200$ per 50Kg bag in the international market, how much does a farmer in Muranga pocket? Why? What would be different about cotton? The farmer in Muranga needs to sort his issues with cartels. Stop the copy and paste kind of thinking, the flower farmer makes money no? What about the tea farmer? And now Stevia
D. AGOA, Why haven't we been able to exploit that lucrative favor from the Americans? Hasn't origin of materials been a thorny issue? We hardly have enough raw material. Its not cheap to import fabric, machinery thread, and everything else that goes into it. Imagine if we could produce our own E. What percentage of apparel/material used in Kenya is cotton? The synthetic material which forms bulk of clothing needs, why don't we manufacture? (Manufacturing sector in Kenya). Look at all the school going kids, the uniforms in hospitals, hospitality sector, include the bedsheets, blankets, towels, your suit (am sure you aint wearing wool)Cotton is in everything and the by product - lint er - is used to make paperF. Manufacturing sector in Kenya. Why is it more expensive to manufacture anything in Kenya? What will be different about textiles? Simple....not exploiting the economies of scaleRespond devoid of theories, we are re-known for those. I'll be back Satisfied? @Murchr, More than satisfied. Thank you. I will give a general response to your post. But first, mtumba used to be donations in the 90s, not anymore. It's a sector with factories and employees in the countries of origin. Here, a 40ft container gives the gov't at least 1 million shillings in taxes. At least three hundred of those containers come every month. My point has been and still is, banning mtumba hurriedly is not a good idea. The best idea would be putting in place measures that will make local textile industry thrive. You will know those measures are in place if you start seeing more locally made stuff, than imported. Make MANUFACTURING sector lucrative,again. The price of cotton will most likely follow the coffee model. Farmers form cooperatives/saccos, through which they process and sell their produce. Expect exploitation just as it is with coffee. No prosperity, just misery. The 1990s factors which made cotton thrive are not there anymore. First on the list, weather. The 90,000 tons of cotton was out-of-thin-air estimate. We have not been able to dress the Americans through AGOA, with all their purchasing power, how will we fair dressing the poor in our society? They stand at about 50%. In short, banning mtumba is noble idea whose time and space is yet to come. Make manufacturing great, sort coffee cartels issues, make Kenyans a bit richer [poverty levels to below 30%] then ban mtumba. Time period? 10 years from year 2016. Otherwise ban mtumba now and it may end up being "costly" to the country. Loss of jobs, medical bills from inadequate clothing, loss of revenue to gov't etc!
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